Irish Town Legalizes Drinking and Driving
By Patrick Hickey Jr.
The Irish town of Kilgarvan passed a law this winter that allows members of its community to drink and drive.
Proposed by local pub owner and politician Danny Healy-Rae, the motion allows people who live in country areas to have a few beers before they drive home. Healy-Rae told The New York Times he thinks the measure will help preserve pub culture, lower the risk of suicide and attack isolation in the small town.
Amid governmental and local backlash, Healy-Rae says the law isn’t supposed to apply to everyone, mainly "elderly people who live in very remote places."
"What is the alternative for them where no public or other transport is available? Staying at home lonely, staring at the four walls?” Healy-Rae told The Times.
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/weird/NATL-Irish-Town-Legalizes-Drinking-and-Driving-199867031.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
And what's worse, the NYT article (which dug this up, a couple of months after the motion was passed) explicitly pointed out the difference. But NBC are just too dumb to read, it seems.
Here's the NYT:
That was the way it was portrayed, at least. What the Kerry County Council actually did was to pass a motion calling for people who live in country areas to be allowed to have a few beers before driving home.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/25/world/europe/motion-allowing-some-drinks-before-driving-draws-fire-in-ireland.html?_r=0
Now, the NYT is being a bit unfair to The Guardian, there, because the Guardian did not say the law had changed, even if it didn't emphasise that this was just a motion:
Councillors in County Kerry back creation of permit allowing drinkers in rural areas to drive after having 'two or three drinks'
A county council in south-west Ireland has voted to back a motion allowing for people living in isolated areas to drink and drive.
The motion was passed by Kerry county council on Monday by five votes to three, with the remainder of the councillors either absent or abstaining.
It supports the creation of permit that will allow rural drinkers to drive after having "two or three drinks". It was tabled by the independent councillor Danny Healy-Rae, who has claimed it would help prevent depression and suicide in the county.
...
He said his proposal would bring back a social outlet for lonely people in rural areas that had been lost after stricter drink-drive laws were introduced.
And if any of these reporters, including the NYT, had bothered firing up that mysterious new invention called Google to find out what happened after the Jan 21st motion, they'd find this, talking about the actual place where Irish laws are made:
Fiach Kelly Political Correspondent – 30 January 2013
INDEPENDENT TD Michael Healy-Rae has tabled a Dail request, asking Transport Minister Leo Varadkar to introduce new laws allowing for his brother Danny's controversial drink-driving permits.
But Mr Varadkar has dismissed the request out of hand, saying he would "find it difficult to respond to a proposal that would undermine" progress in road safety.
...
But Michael Healy-Rae will have no success with his request, as Mr Varadkar has firmly ruled it out.
http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/healyrae-drinkdrive-permit-plea-is-rejected-29024545.html
So what we have is a pub owner and local politician, and his brother, also a politician, drumming up an incredible amount of publicity for the family pub ("Since the drinking motion was passed, the pub has hosted film crews from across Europe and beyond"
. But no chance of any change in the law And piss-poor reporting from a succession of American hacks.