High 'foreign' drink driver level

Claire Savage
BBC Newsline

Hundreds of foreign nationals were arrested

Last year 12% of people arrested for driving over the limit in Northern Ireland were from two eastern European countries, the BBC has learned.

Using a Freedom of Information request the BBC found that in the last year 2,301 people were arrested for being over the legal drink-drive limit.

Of those 4% were Polish and 8% Lithuanian. Overall they account for no more than about 1% of NI's population.

Nearly three quarters arrested were from NI and 8% from the Republic.

Claire Savage reports on the situation

DRINK DRIVE (BREATH)

Canada - 4

Czech Republic - 10

Hungary - 6

India - 6

Iran - 2

Ireland - 173

Latvia - 21

Lithuania - 187

Poland - 81

Portugal - 38

Russian Federatiion - 6

Slovakia - 9

South Africa - 10

Ukraine - 13

Zimbabwe - 3

Figures from PSNI

The investigation, by BBC Northern Ireland's Newsline programme, suggests that the road safety message is not getting through to some migrant communities.

The information obtained by the BBC indicates communities which account for a small part of the population - about 1% - account for a large proportion of all drink drive arrests.

The PSNI said where a person had committed an offence it would be dealt with appropriately and impartially to ensure that they were brought before the courts.