Denmark has become the sixth EU State to bring in a penalty points system. From Monday, drivers caught speeding, driving too close to the car in front or overtaking on the inside may incur one point for each offence.
A driver can incur three points over three years. After that, they must re-sit a theoretical and practical driving test within three months of getting the points. The driver pays the cost of the tests and, if they fail, they lose their licence until they pass both tests.
Even after passing the tests, the driver is on probation for three years. If they incur three more points during this period they are banned for six months.
However, not all speeding offences incur points. A driver must exceed the set limit by 30 per cent to get a point. Below this they get a fine.
As with the Irish system, drivers with foreign licences cannot incur points as there is no system in place to exchange information. Denmark joins Ireland, Britain and Northern Ireland, France, Greece and Germany in alloting points for certain offences. However, none of the systems work on a cross-border basis.
As yet there is no EU-wide system for allocating points and there are concerns in Denmark that drivers from neighbouring Germany and Sweden will get away without penalties.
Here the Minister for Transport, Martin Cullen, is to raise the problem of drivers from Northern Ireland being unaccountable for their driving in the Republic with the British government this month.
The move follows the emergence of figures showing that more than 42,000 drivers escaped penalty points in Ireland last year and the majority were from outside the state.
Under current legislation, motorists from Northern Ireland can't have points imposed on them by gardaí. However, they can be charged and fined in court for traffic offences.
A total of 56 motorists who were issued with careless driving notices received no points. Of the 19,701 drivers found not to be wearing seatbelts, 2,701 didn't get points.
Meanwhile, the Department of the Environment, which is responsible for maintaining driving licence records, said it couldn't tell how many Irish citizens are currently driving in the Republic on licences they had acquired in Britain or elsewhere. Those drivers cannot have points imposed upon them.