The High Court has dismissed a judicial review application by Tomás Ó Gríofáin, who sought to stop a drunken-driving prosecution over a breath-test statement printed in English.
Mr Justice Charleton delivered the judgment on 23 April 2009. The applicant had asked the court to require Irish translations of specified court rules and to declare that a person who requested an Irish or bilingual breath-analysis certificate was entitled to receive and acknowledge one. He also sought orders preventing the Director of Public Prosecutions from proceeding with two District Court charges while the requested translations were unavailable.
The charges followed a traffic stop near Whitehall, Tullamore, on 4 March 2006. Garda James Downey arrested the applicant on suspicion of drunken driving and took him to Tullamore Garda Station. The applicant initially spoke English, then used Irish when asked to provide breath samples. The Garda obtained an Irish-language script and continued the procedure in Irish. The breath machine printed a statement in English showing alcohol above the statutory limit. The applicant refused to sign an acknowledgement of the reading because the form was not in Irish.
The applicant was later summonsed in Irish on charges of drunken driving and failing to sign the acknowledgement. The judgment says an Irish translation of the machine’s statement was sent to him about a year after the incident. The applicant maintained in an affidavit that he was innocent; the judge said the criminal trial court would decide that issue.
The judge said the applicant was entitled to present his defence in Irish and found no indication that the State had treated him abusively or discriminatorily for asserting that right. He distinguished the right to use Irish in court from a claimed right to have every official document in Irish. Citing earlier decisions, he said the key question was whether the missing documents created a real risk that the applicant could not receive a fair trial.
The judge found no such risk arising from the English-language breath-test statement, which he said the applicant understood. He also found no demonstrated risk of an unfair appeal from the absence of an Irish version of the Circuit Court Rules, noting that the applicant had not explained how those rules would assist him. The court dismissed the application. It did not determine whether the applicant was guilty of either District Court charge.