All vehicles in the State should have inbuilt breathalysers to combat drink-driving, an Oireachtas committee has heard.Alcohol ignition interlocks – which would stop drivers from starting their cars if alcohol is detected – should be mandatory for repeat offenders, Prof Denis Cusack, director of the Medical Bureau of Road Safety, told the Oireachtas transport committee on Wednesday. He said the introduction of interlock devices currently “has to be voluntary because there’s no legislation to support it”, but he suggested “the next phase” should be to target repeat offenders and those who suffer from alcoholism.Cusack said the “third phase” in the rollout should be “that all cars in the future be fitted” with the devices.Last year, he said, those found to be drink-driving were, on average, at more than three times the legal limit.[ How alcohol really affects your body, from the first sip to the long haulOpens in new window ]“When people are drink-driving, they really are drink-driving,” he said, adding that he feared the rollout of breathalyser interlock devices “is progressing much more slowly than is desirable”.Internationally, Cusack said, alcohol is a contributing factor in about 30 per cent of crashes. “If you could stop that overnight with these devices, why not do that?”Having breathalysers, he said, would make cars safer and would be a “selling point” for manufacturers, rather than a development which car makers would object to.The leading causes of serious injuries and deaths on the road are speeding, drivers not using safety belts, dangerous and careless driving due to fatigue, and driving under the influence of intoxicants, the committee heard.Asked what he felt the State needed to do to reduce road deaths, Cusack said more roads policing and Garda visibility would help, though he noted the number of motorists tested last year was at its highest level in two decades. “You can have as many cameras as you want, but that is only going to pick up speeding, it is not going to pick up drink-driving or drugs,” he added.He said some “thinking outside the box” was needed to address the issue and suggested the creation of a transport police force, “Garda Iompar na hÉireann”, would help. This could cover public transport and roads policing, with the officers assigned able to “rotate for their own sanity”.[ Judge who called cyclists ‘a nightmare’ was fined for failing to provide breath test to gardaOpens in new window ]Separately, David Fitzgerald, chief executive of the Motor Insurers Bureau of Ireland (Mibi), said one in 15 cars on the State’s roads, some 211,000 in total, were not insured.“This high level of uninsured driving is bad news for everyone who uses Irish roads,” he said, with uninsured drivers engaging in “more risky behaviour”.The knock-on for law-abiding drivers, he said, was that uninsured driving “adds to the cost of motor insurance”.