Someone Actually Wanted To Create A Legal Exception For Irish Farmers To Drive Drunk

I’m still a bit floored by this article I just came across. Someone was actually trying to create an exception to drunk driving laws for farmers. To my gratification, and as you might reasonably expect, this attempt was quickly squashed.

Now, I can understand some of the things that caused council people in Kerry, Ireland to attempt such a thing. Ireland’s crackdown on drunk driving has driven down pub revenues. This is true. It is also true that the roads driven by the particular farmers who would be covered by the exception were sparsely trafficked (though narrow). Further, this was not to be a blanket license to drive drunk, but merely an allowance for them to drive under 30 MPH under a certain minor intoxication level (a couple of beers and no more).

However, I still wouldn’t have gone for this myself. As much as I can understand their motivations, it still seems too dangerous to me. Drunk driving is drunk driving. It just isn’t safe. Period.

Does this change how things have always been done? Sure. Can it kill pub revenues and make Irish farmers drink at home? Sure. But, even as low trafficked as the roads in their area are, I still can’t see it being safe to let them drive drunk. Other people can’t drive drunk because it’s unsafe. It just isn’t really much safer, even granting open roads and slower speeds, for the farmers.

Regardless, my opinion doesn’t really matter much on this. The Irish government wasn’t having it anyway. I just thought this was an odd thing for someone to try to get passed. Next I’ll hear that they’re trying to get farmers permission to fly small planes while sniffing glue.