Senior garda appeals to Donegal rally fans to ease back on their alcohol consumption

A senior garda responsible for traffic management at the Donegal International Rally has appealed to those attending the rally to ease up on the amount of alcohol they are consuming.

Yesterday gardaí in Letterkenny made 30 arrests for various offence ranging from drink driving to dangerous driving.

Traffic Manager Inspector Michael Harrison says he has not seen crowds so large attending the various stages of this year's rally, and he says that there is no issue with those fans at stages as they are following the instruction of stewards and the gardaí.

However, it was unfortunate that there are others who have ended up in difficulty, in many cases because they are consuming large amounts of alcohol. He confirmed that 30 people had been arrested for various offences ranging from public order offences, drink driving and dangerous driving.

"It's disappointing that the number of arrests is so high, but we have to respond to all these incidents and deal with them," he said.

"Everyone is welcome to come to the rally, we are just asking them to behave themselves and not to be drinking so much. That is the biggest problem we have, young people just consume excessive amounts of alcohol and get themselves into a situation that later on they may regret," he added.