Motorists who commit traffic offences like speeding or not wearing a seat belt on Bank Holiday weekends will face higher penalty points under proposed new legislation.
The Minister with Responsibility for Road Safety is set to update Cabinet colleagues tomorrow on the proposal.
This initiative is one of a number of measures the Government is working on to address the recent increase in fatalities and serious injuries occurring on Irish roads.
Under the new Road Traffic Measures Bill 2023, powers would be granted to vary the number of penalty points during specific times when road safety risks are higher.
Road safety data shows bank holiday weekends have a higher level of road deaths and serious injuries linked to driving offences.
Minister Jack Chambers will outline to the Cabinet how increasing points for specified periods is likely to have a positive impact on driver behaviour.
There were 46 fatal or serious injury collisions over the February, June and the August Bank Holiday weekends this year
Data also shows there were almost 10,000 speeding detections over the same weekends.
The move to increase penalty points for specific periods like Bank Holiday weekends has been successfully introduced in other jurisdictions, including Australia.
Other proposals being brought by Minister Chambers include a change to intoxicant testing rules whereby gardaí would be mandatorily required to test for drugs at the scene of road collisions.
The minister is also preparing legislation to implement the recommendations in the recent speed limit review, which reduces baseline speed limits on rural roads as well as national secondary roads and roads in built up and residential areas.
The proposed legislation also contains measures to end an existing anomaly within the penalty points system where motorists who are caught committing multiple offences at the same time only receive penalty points for the higher offence.
