Lawmakers have approved a Transport Minister order allowing the use of a new breath analyser to detect drunk drivers.

While Opposition members supported the measure and called for greater public awareness about the dangers of driving and drinking, they criticised Government for not bringing the order earlier, saying the Police had already been using the contraption and a legal loophole had existed which allowed accused drunk drivers to get off when brought to court. ?What took you so long ?? asked Opposition House Leader John Barritt.

He said that it was known a year ago that people who had been tested using those machines had had their cases thrown out of court because of successful challenges on the grounds that the machines had not been approved.

Mr. Barritt said that the Department of Public Prosecutions had resorted to adjourning cases in the hopes that the law would be brought up to date in the interim. ?Is this what is going on with parking tickets... where hundreds of thousands of dollars are being lost ??

He added that the order was a relatively minor affair - at just six lines long and a virtual copy of previous legislation.

?Where has our attention been when we can?t do this small thing ? And we wonder why people lose confidence in our justice system.?

He added : ?This is the chief evidence in making the case that this government is not being as serious as it ought to be or as the community wants it to be.?

Police acquired the ?Camic-Datamaster Infra-Red Breath Analyser? - an update of an older breath analyser more than a year ago. The law requires the Transport Minister to approve all instruments used in testing drunk driving suspects.

Transport Minister Ewart Brown said he did not know why the order took so long to be drafted, but he would try to find out.

Opposition Member Patricia Gordon-Pamplin said she was concerned at the lack of a Police presence at certain times.

She said she had called 911 to report a drunk driver only to be told that the service were between shifts and no one was available in the area to address the matter.