Mihai Avadenei has been granted leave to appeal to the Supreme Court in a drink-driving case that turns on the language of a breath test certificate. The Supreme Court delivered its determination on 8 July 2016.
Mr Avadenei was charged with driving at Ellis Quay, Dublin 7, in April 2014 with an excess of alcohol in his breath. The charge said the reading was 54 micrograms per 100 millilitres of breath, against a limit of 22. The main evidence was a document generated by the Evidenzer breath test machine and signed by Mr Avadenei and the garda. It was in English only.
His lawyers argued that the Road Traffic Act 2010 regulations required a single document in both Irish and English. District Judge Conal Gibbons sent the question to the High Court as a consultative case in October 2014.
Mr Justice Noonan ruled in September 2015 that the law must be strictly construed. He held that a statement produced in one language only was not in the prescribed form and so lost its evidential value.
The Court of Appeal, in May 2016, agreed that the form requirements were not met. But it held that section 12 of the Interpretation Act 2005 meant the certificate was not deprived of evidential value, because the deviation did not materially affect its substance.
Mr Avadenei applied for leave to appeal, saying the case raised a point of law of general public importance. He pointed out that about 1,500 cases were waiting on the outcome. This was not contradicted.
The Supreme Court agreed that the case raises such a point. It said a substantial number of cases are affected and that the case involves a provision of the Interpretation Act that applies generally.
Leave was granted on five grounds. They include whether the Court of Appeal was wrong to apply section 12 of the Interpretation Act 2005 and wrong to treat the certificate as admissible and duly completed. The Director of Public Prosecutions has applied to cross-appeal, which is dealt with in a separate determination.