Irish move to let the lonely drink-drive

Councillors in south-west Ireland have backed a plan to relax the drink-drive limits for isolated constituents so they can get out more.

The motion backed by Kerry county councillors would allow police to issue permits overriding the legal limit, reports the BBC.

Councillor Danny Healy-Rae, who proposed the motion, said it would apply to "older people" who "are being isolated now at home, and a lot of them falling into depression".

A number of the councillors who approved the measure are reportedly themselves pub owners - but Mr Healy-Rae denied that this had influenced the vote.

He said it would benefit people "living in isolated rural areas where there's no public transport of any kind, and they end up at home looking at the four walls, night in and night out".

"On the roads I'm talking about, you couldn't do any more than 20 or 30 miles per hour and it's not a big deal. I don't see any big issue with it," he said.

However, Kerry Mayor Terry O'Brien said the motion - which was passed by five votes to three with seven abstentions - did not "make any sense".

"It is incredibly dangerous. I don't know how anybody can be allowed to say: 'You've had two pints, so you're justified to drive'," he said.