The issue of drink-driving is back in the spotlight following the release of a victim impact statement from a Portlaoise family who lost their four-year-old son in crash with a drunk driver. But many ask the question whether Ciaran Treacy will become just another road death statistic or will this unnecessarily brutal loss of life change people’s attitudes to drink driving forever?

Most of the national newspapers led with Gillian and Ronan Treacy’s account of the horror they endured when their son Ciaran’s life was cut short - after a head-on collision with Finbarr O’Rourke, who had drunk eight to 10 pints of cider on April 17th 2014 before getting behind the wheel.

I visited Ardee in Co Louth to ask people if they thought it was still acceptable for people to drink and drive, particularly in rural towns and villages.

Niall McCartney, a barman from Tenantys on Main St, Ardee, admits that he doesn’t take keys from customers for fear that they will “go for ya”.

He says that the issue is the lack of taxis and that for the older generation it’s a cultural problem: “If you’re waiting around for a taxi and you have the keys in your pocket, the first thing you’ll do is get in and drive... when the drink’s in that’s it.”

Mr McCartney also points out that Gardai checkpoints only occur “on bank holidays or at Christmas” but “you won’t see them at night because there’s not enough gards to do it”.

Local farmer John McAleese admitted that he would "have four or five pints” before getting behind the wheel but not anymore as he now knows the risk involved.

However, another man revealed that many people he knows believe when it comes to getting caught drinking that “it won’t happen to me”.

One pub-goer said he knew of people who “drive into the town, they drink and they sleep in the cars but the next morning they get up and they drive away so they’re still intoxicated.”

It's fair to say that there still seems to be a way to go before drink driving is completely unacceptable throughout all of Ireland's towns and cities.

Listen to the report in full below: