173 people have been arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of drink or drugs as part of the October Bank Holiday weekend road safety campaign.
Gardai also say over 1,000 drivers have been detected speeding around the country since 7am on Thursday.
In a 24-hour period alone up to this morning, 56 people were arrested on suspicion of driving while under the influence of an intoxicant.
During the same time, Gardai also issued 324 fixed charge penalty notices for speeding.
The detections were made as part of a high-visibilty enforcement operation taking place across the October bank holiday weekend.
It comes as Department of Justice figures show there has been a further fall in the number of gardaí assigned to the roads policing unit.
There were 655 officers allocated to the unit in September, a reduction of four on the previous month.
According to the figures, the number of gardaí specifically working in roads policing has fallen by 37% compared to 2009.
The data shows there were 1,046 members working in the unit in 2009, compared to 655 last month.
Inspector Paul Slattery from the Roads Policing Unit in the Clare Tipperary Garda Division has defended the number of officers in the unit across the country.
"It's not just roads policing numbers that are dedicated to enforcing traffic legislation but we also have members from the local units," he said.
Speaking at a checkpoint in Thurles in Co Tipperary this morning, Inspector Slattery said "obviously when more recruits join An Garda Síochána, we'll have competitions and hopefully get more people in."
He said while gardaí will always look for numbers in the roads policing section, he is "happy that we have sufficient numbers at present right across the country to enforce road traffic legislation".
Speaking on RTÉ's News at One, Martin Kenny, Sinn Féin spokesperson on Transport and Communications, said communities were being negatively impacted by the reduction in gardaí policing Irish roads.
"We have seen a reduction in garda numbers across the board and in many areas, and many communities are suffering the impact of that.
"But particularly when we look to the roads policing units, we have seen them drop by over a third, it was almost, I think 1,100, to 1,200 guards 10-15 years ago, and now it is down to just over 650, and we are in a situation where we have a rising number of fatalities on our roads unfortunately, more collisions, roads got busier..."
Mr Kenny said there was nothing wrong with introducing new legislation, but unless adequate detection was provided for new and existing legislation there was no point.
"Because ultimately, you know, if the gardaí are not on the beat, are not out there detecting this either speeding or people using drugs or people using their phone while they are driving, you know we have got a problem, and we have to recognise that."
A statement from the gardaí said "numbers deployed on roads policing remain consistently higher as a percentage of the entire organisation (over double) compared to other priority areas, including domestic violence, drugs interdiction, economic crime and emerging cyber crime".
"In 2022, non-roads policing personnel were responsible for 70% of driving under the influence detections and 24.5% of the enforcement of mobile phone, seatbelt and speeding offences," the statement said.
Some 157 people have been killed on Irish roads so far in 2023.
Inspector Slattery has appealed to all road users to be extra vigilant and stay safe, as bank holiday weekend periods are one of the busiest periods on the roads.
"In the last 24 hours alone, we've had 56 people arrested on suspicion of driving while under the influence of an intoxicant," Inspector Slattery said.
Gardaí also issued 324 fixed charge penalty notices for speeding, including an incident on the N3 in Co Cavan "where an individual was detected traveling at 177 kilometres per hour in a 100 kph zone."
So far this year, 157 people have lost their lives in incidents on Irish roads.
The figures is two more the total number of fatalities for all of 2022.
