CALLS have been made for a Christmas crackdown on drug drivers in Donegal as numbers throughout the county spike.
Between 2024 and the first ten months of 2025, drug driving cases rose sharply, increasing by 67 per cent in the Donegal Town District Court and by 52 per cent in Letterkenny.
Ireland South MEP Cynthia Ní Mhurchú has called for decisive action this Christmas to curb the escalating threat of drug driving.
“We need an expanded roadside drug testing regime this Christmas period on our roads,” she said.
“We also need to consider policies whereby anyone convicted of drug driving is required to re-sit their driving test or, at minimum, complete a comprehensive driver re-education programme.
“They have to get the message that they are a danger to other innocent road users”
Ní Mhurchú has also suggested deploying modified interlock technology, devices currently used to prevent drink driving in the cars of convicted drink drivers, so they can detect drugs instead of alcohol in the vehicles of repeat offenders.
The Ireland South MEP described the cases that do make it to the district court as being the “tip of the ice berg when it comes to drug driving”.
Ní Mhurchú described these measures as an essential ramp up in the fight against drug driving in an effort to protect all road users and restore confidence in road safety this festive season.
As of December 9, 2025, 170 people had lost their lives on Ireland’s roads, seven more people than on the same date in 2024.
