The Road Safety Authority (RSA) is pushing for emergency legislation to double to six the number of penalty points given to drivers for speeding and mobile phone use.
A driver loses their licence if they accrue 12 points over three years.
It is also calling for emergency laws to accelerate the application of multiple penalty points for multiple traffic offences, while a new working group has backed changes to reduce the number of learner drivers who hold a third or subsequent permit.
So far this year 81 people have died on Irish roads, the worst on record in a decade. A total of 137 motorists were arrested for intoxicated driving over the bank holiday weekend up to early on Monday.
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In April the RSA prepared briefing documentation for senior executives ahead of an appearance at the Oireachtas Committee on Transport. The documentation contains a list of “position statements” on various issues from speeding and penalty points to driver testing.
The information, released to The Irish Times under a Freedom of Information request, shows the RSA is prioritising a doubling of penalty points, from three to six, for speeding and mobile phone use. The group wants the emergency legislation to do this enacted “as a matter of priority” with any such change “supported by targeted enforcement and awareness campaigns”.
The briefing documents referred to a 2022 survey which found 50 per cent of respondents supported increasing the number of penalty points for speeding, while 64 per cent supported increasing the number of penalty points for mobile phone use.
The RSA also pointed towards the fact that a driver in the UK receives six penalty points if using a mobile phone while driving.
In the April documents, the RSA recommended emergency legislation be used to accelerate previously announced plans to apply multiple penalty points as a sanction for committing multiple traffic offences.
A spokesman for the Department of Transport said “multiple penalty points for multiple offences” was “now legislated for and will be implemented in due course”.
In relation to increasing penalty points for certain offences, the RSA raised the matter with department officials last year when the legislation on Road Traffic Measures was being drafted and it was not included in this legislation. The department said the Road Traffic Measures Act was a focused, concise piece of legislation which prioritised the above mentioned areas of reform.
Separately, learner drivers on their third or subsequent permit may face stricter rules as part of wider plans to tackle the incidence of unaccompanied learner permit drivers. An objective has been set to reduce the number of learner car drivers who hold a third or subsequent learner permit from 24.6 per cent to a maximum of 10 per cent by the end of this year.
At the end of February this year, 59,933 drivers were found to be on their third or subsequent learner permit in the car category – representing 19.4 per cent of car learner permit holders.
In the documentation prepared for executives, they were told the RSA and the department were “considering changes to address the issue of long-term reliance on learner permits”.
“A change in legislation will be required to introduce any new measures agreed. A proposal has been agreed with the Department of Transport and the Road Safety Authority which will necessitate a change in legislation.” Although it is not in the document, one option already outlined by Government involves learner drivers on a third or subsequent permit being obliged to sit a test, rather than just booking one and potentially cancelling.
The documents also reveal that last year, the RSA received 2,636 complaints in relation to the driving test service, which equates to a little over 1 per cent of all tests. Up to the end of February, 401 complaints were received regarding the driving test this year.
Liz O’Donnell, chairwoman of the RSA, said: “We are in the business of advising the Government and putting forward suggestions that will have an impact. It is up to the Government to respond. I hope they will.”
She said it was clear greater enforcement would have an impact. “We are talking about deterrence. We have been calling for more enforcement and we got that from the [Garda] Commissioner’s unusual 30 minutes per officer response.
“It is worth nothing that in April and May road fatalities declined. It is our job to reverse the trend in road fatalities and we are putting forward ideas to do that.”
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