Road Traffic Act, 1968

Obligation to provide, or permit taking of, specimen at Garda station (section 49).

30.—(1) Where a person (in this section referred to as the arrested person) arrested under section 49 (4) of the Principal Act or section 28 (3) (a) of this Act has been brought to a Garda station the member of the Garda Síochána then in charge there may do either or both of the following—

(a) require the arrested person to provide in the prescribed manner a specimen of his breath by exhaling into an apparatus designed for showing the concentration of alcohol in the breath or blood or into a receptacle designed for preserving the specimen for subsequent analysis,

(b) require the arrested person either to permit a designated registered medical practitioner to take from the arrested person a specimen of his blood or, if the arrested person so opts, to provide for the designated registered medical practitioner a specimen of the arrested person's urine in accordance with the prescribed procedure.

(2) Notwithstanding subsection (1), when an arrested person who opted to provide in accordance with the prescribed procedure a specimen of urine fails to do so, he may be required by the member of the Garda Síochána in charge of the station to permit the designated registered medical practitioner to take from the arrested person a specimen of his blood.

(3) An arrested person (other than a person who has provided a specimen of his urine in accordance with the prescribed procedure) who, following a requisition under this section, refuses or fails to permit a designated registered medical practitioner to take from the arrested person a specimen of his blood shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for any term not exceeding six months or, at the discretion of the court, to a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds or to both such imprisonment and such fine.

(4) An arrested person who refuses or fails to comply with a requisition under subsection (1) (a) shall be guilty of an offence.

(5) Section 1 (1) of the Probation of Offenders Act, 1907, shall not apply to an offence under this section.