The High Court ruled that a breath-test certificate printed only in English was not in the prescribed form and could not be admitted in evidence in a prosecution for alleged drink-driving.
Mr Justice Noonan gave the ruling on 21 September 2015 in a consultative case stated by District Judge Colin Gibbons. The question was whether the District Judge was entitled to find that the certificate was not “duly completed” under section 13 of the Road Traffic Act 2010 and the 2011 regulations.
The prosecution alleged that Mihai Avadenei drove on Ellis Quay, Dublin, on 21 April 2014 with 54 micrograms of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath, above the statutory limit cited in the charge. At the District Court hearing, Garda Colm McCluskey said the Evidenzer apparatus produced the certificate in English. He also said the machine could produce a printout in Irish.
The defence argued that the regulations prescribed a form in both English and Irish and that an English-only printout was not a duly completed certificate. The prosecution submitted that the English form was reproduced in Irish in the regulations, rather than requiring a single document in both languages. It also argued that the language issue caused no confusion or prejudice.
Mr Justice Noonan said section 13 required two statements to be supplied in the prescribed form and completed in the prescribed manner. He construed the schedule to the regulations as one form comprising both the English and Irish versions. The English-only document therefore omitted half of the prescribed form. He rejected the argument that this was a permissible deviation under section 12 of the Interpretation Act 2005, finding that omission of half the form was not a mere deviation.
The judge answered the District Court’s question “Yes”: the document was neither in the prescribed form nor duly completed. It had no evidential presumption under section 20(1) and was not evidence that could be admitted. The High Court’s ruling resolved that legal question; the judgment does not record a determination of the accused’s guilt or a final order disposing of the underlying prosecution.