Penalty points are “severe enough right now,” according to Tánaiste Micheál Martin.

He was speaking today after the RSA proposed a doubling of points to six for drivers caught using their phones or speeding.

It follows three serious crashes over the bank holiday weekend, including two fatalities.

Penalty points

Mr Martin said a broad look at road safety is what’s needed in the first instance.

“Penalty points right now are severe enough actually for a lot of people, and to speak to people who build them up,” he said.

“I think we need to be looking more broadly at what are the issues underlying the more recent increase and the reversal of what had been a trend of reducing deaths on our roads and certainly then take action.

“We will examine those [RSA] proposals, I read them just this morning.”

A Garda checkpoint: Photo: Tom Douglas

The Tánaiste said: “Too many people are being killed on our roads right now”.

“Certainly in the post-COVID period, something seems to have developed in terms of accelerated injuries, accidents and road deaths,” he said.

“I think we need to examine and analyse that pretty comprehensively before jumping to conclusions as to the best remedies.

“I do feel it’s difficult to comprehend people using mobile phones while driving in this day and age and that’s something that certainly needs examination.”

Proposals

Taoiseach Simon Harris said the RSA’s penalty points proposals will be considered by Minister of State Jack Chambers.

“We’ve seen 81 deaths on Irish roads this year and we should begin and end every conversation we have about road safety with that very stark reality,” he said.

“We have seen some degree of improvement in relation to statistics in the last number of weeks but statistics don’t hide the reality of 81 loved-lives cut short on Irish roads.”

“The Government continues to keep everything under review and there aren’t proposals currently for new emergency measures.

“What there has been is a number of measures, including as recently as last week where €30m was provided to local authorities in terms of the quality of our road and road improvement.”

Awareness

The Taoiseach said awareness campaigns have worked in the past.

“I remember growing up in Ireland, there are very stark ads about killer behaviours,” he said.

“I certainly have a view, and many in Government do too, that we need to see more hard-hitting ads on the TV and radio.”

The penalty points system was first introduced in Ireland in 2002.

Reporting by Andrew Lowth. 

Main image: Tánaiste Micheál Martin on his way into Cabinet, 27-03-2024. Image: Leah Farrell/RollingNews