The rate of people getting caught driving while under the influence in Galway is higher than the national average.
Figures from the Central Statistics Office show that more than 32,000 people have been caught drink driving over the past five years.
That’s a national average of 11.5 stops per thousand people, but Galway is one of nine Garda divisions with a higher rate than this.
According to the Irish Independent an analysis of these figures shows that despite a supposed change in attitudes towards drink driving, almost a third of those caught are millennials.
Garda Assistant Commissioner David Sheahan said that this number should be far lower as they have grown up in a different culture.
He said that would have expected them to have “learned from their forefathers” this wasn’t acceptable.
A steady increase in drink driving offences has been recorded by the Gardaí since 2015, with drug driving offences in the cities spiking from 2016.
However during that same period restrictions have been tightened with the legal limit being reduced and penalties increased.
The highest detection rate was in the Cavan/Monaghan Garda Division at 19.11 per 1,000 of the population, while Dublin recorded the highest number of incidents with 6,582 since 2015.
The Gardaí are mounting a major Christmas roads policing campaign that will see additional checkpoints in urban and rural areas.
Galway has had 22 additional gardaí allocated to the county to help in this effort.
So far this year 148 people have lost their lives on the roads.
The Road Safety Authority said that drink driving can no longer be tolerated in our society.
They added that people need to be aware that any amount of alcohol in your systems impairs judgement, even the morning after a night drinking.
Garda forensic investigation files show that 11% of fatal collisions occur between 7am and 11am.
