Fewer Garda checkpoints in Sligo/Leitrim as drug driving soars 

There was a 25.4% fall in drink and drug driving checkpoints in Sligo/Leitrim Garda division as numbers went from 555 checkpoints in Q3 2024 down to 414 checkpoints in Q3 2025. 

Meanwhile in Louth/Cavan/Monaghan there were 20.8% fewer checkpoints and in Donegal there were 10.3% less. 

 EU Transport Committee MEP, Cynthia Ní Mhurchú, recently highlighted significant increases in drug driving figures across most Garda districts in Ireland. The MEP has followed this with an analysis of the number of checkpoints Gardaí are carrying out across every district in the country.  

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Figures taken from the Garda PULSE system on 03/11/2025, show significant decreases in the number of Mandatory Intoxication Testing Checkpoints conducted by An Garda Síochána across many Garda districts between Q3 2024 and Q3 2025. This at a time when drug driving is at epidemic levels. 

12,930 Mandatory Intoxication Testing (MIT) Checkpoints were carried out nationally throughout Q3 2024 but this fell to 11,958 checkpoints by Q3 2025, a drop of 7.5% - against a backdrop of a worrying spike in road deaths in Ireland. 

Garda figures also show that from Q3 2019, 15,392 Mandatory Intoxication Testing Checkpoints were carried out nationally during Q3 2019 - 3,434 more checkpoints than in Q3 2025. 

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140 people were killed on Irish roads in 2019, 45 less people than in 2025. 

Ní Mhurchú, a member of the EU Transport committee, said that with road deaths at unprecedented levels, Garda management should be dramatically increasing  the number of Mandatory Intoxication Testing (MIT) Checkpoints on our roads, not decreasing them. 

According to Ní Mhurchú, the difference in the number of checkpoints between 2019 and 2025 is frightening, 

“Gardaí carried out thousands more roadside alcohol and drug checkpoints in 2019 than they did in 2025. The figures speak for themselves. In 2019, we had 140 deaths, but in 2025, we had 185 deaths. Drug driving is out of control but now Gardaí are testing less people meaning the drug driving figures I recently received from the courts service are only the tip of the iceberg. Those figures show a 37% increase in cases coming before our district courts for drug driving in the first 10 months of 2025. This should be evidence enough for Gardaí to launch a massive increase in drug and drink driving checkpoints – but they have done the opposite and reduced them. I want to know the rationale for it. If it is a resource issue, lets deal with it but it must be pointed out that there were more Gardaí in 2025 than there were in 2019."