"Fifty seven police officers have been convicted of drink-driving in Northern Ireland over the past few years.

The figures were released in an answer to a parliamentary question today.

Deputy Chief Constable Paul Leighton said officers convicted of drink driving would be dealt with robustly.

It's hard to take their crackdown campaign seriously when you read reports like that."

Why? The cases that were being discussed were Police Officers who were pulled up, tested, charged and handed over to due process of law in exactly the same way as anyone else would be, with the exception that these officers would lose their jobs as consequential punishment for their offence. Fifty-seven cases in the past few years, does not give any scale to judge by. Too little information really to go on, how many of the those fifty-seven cases resulted in a death? In how many of those fifty-seven cases were the police officers on duty?

Personally if any official spokesperson for any Police Force states that they are going to crackdown on drink-driving and deal with offenders robustly - I see no reason whatsoever to doubt for one second that they would do otherwise.