Fewer than one in 10 motorists arrested for drink driving so far this year are women, figures obtained from An Garda Síochána show.
A detailed analysis of the age and gender among those arrested for drink driving revealed that men aged between 26 and 35 are most likely to be caught, accounting for 30 per cent of all arrests.
Women in the same age group accounted for under 3 per cent of arrests, the highest of any of the female age categories.
A quarter of all drink driving arrests were of men aged between 17 and 25, the analysis showed.
The number of arrests fall steadily for both men and women in their forties, fifties and sixties. Fewer than 2 per cent of motorists arrested are over 65.
Garda figures also show a downward trend in the number of people arrested for drink driving last month. "We are down to 1,756 arrests in November, from over 2,000 in October," Assistant Commissioner Eddie Rock of the Garda Traffic Corps said. "So the trends are in the right direction. It is hopefully an indication that people are beginning to get the message."
Assistant Commissioner Rock also said arrest data showed the vast majority of drivers were being caught at night, with tiny numbers arrested in the morning.
Just 43 of the drivers arrested for drink driving in October were caught between 7am and 9am, he said. "If we look at one week, the week ending October 30th, just eight of those arrested that week out of almost 500, were arrested between 7am and 9am," he added.
Six of the arrests were as a result of the driver driving erratically and being stopped by gardaí, rather than being breathalysed at a checkpoint, he said.
"Not an awful lot of people are being arrested for drink driving under the mandatory alcohol testing between the hours of 7am and 9 am.There is no comparison with the level of activity at that time of day with a weekend night."
He also said public reaction to the mandatory alcohol testing regime remained largely positive.