A system of "double demerits" - where penalty points are doubled for offences that occur during specific weekends or bank holidays - is being studied by the Oireachtas Transport Committee.
Members of the committee visited Australia earlier this month to study road safety policies there and, according to committee chairman John Ellis, a demerit system applied there "could have a role to play and it is something we will discuss back in Ireland."
Mr Ellis, along with Fianna Fáil colleague Jim Glennon and Fine Gael's Olivia Mitchell and Senator Paddy Burke, met with road safety, police and traffic authorities in Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney last week.
"There's a lot of misinformation on how road safety is treated around the world. In Australia it is totally research driven. New South Wales has done a lot of research on young drivers; into how they behave and the times of accidents." He said this allows the Australian police to, for example, find out what role peer pressure plays in accidents involving young drivers. "They also do research into the role of distractions such as mobile phones, music and even GPS systems.
"The police here are very open and frank in their ways of dealing with the problem. Their method of enforcement is yielding better results. There are, for instance, dedicated random breath test units in New South Wales," said Mr Ellis.
It takes three years to get a full driving licence in Australia. You have to go through a written test, a learner's permit and two separate provisional licences before you can even take the test for a full licence.
"The amazing thing [in Australia] is that the accident figures for young people are high even with all the training, but those within the learner phase had less accidents," said Mr Ellis.
Australia operates what it calls a system of 'double demerit' points at peak holiday periods such as Christmas, the Australia Day weekend and Easter. If you are caught not wearing a seatbelt in a holiday period you are automatically halfway to losing your license. If just one of your passengers is not wearing their seat belt the driver's licence is revoked.
"We will take a further look at double demerits at specific times. That definitely could have a role to play and it is something we will discuss back in Ireland. It was introduced in Australia because the statistics showed these were the times people were most likely to have accidents," noted Mr Ellis.
Road collisions in the so-called Outback are also of interest to the Oireachtas Committee. "When you get to rural Australia the number of serious accidents rises significantly. In Ireland also you are more liable to have a serious accident on rural roads than on motorways. The same statistics are being proved in Australia," said Mr Ellis. "What we are learning is relevant to Ireland. It is the same type of society with the same type of problems," he added. There were 2,017 road deaths in Australia last year, which has a population of 20.5 million.