A new study has found that 3.6 per cent of motorists driving through Navan in Co Meath over a one-hour period were using their mobile phones.
The study was conducted by observing all drivers passing through four junctions in Navan between 2pm and 3pm on an afternoon last January.
Of the 1,075 vehicles that passed through the junctions, 39 drivers were using hand-held mobile phones.
Some 27 of the 851 people who were driving cars were on phones; 11 of the 124 people driving vans were using mobile phones; and one of the 61 taxi-drivers who passed was on the telephone.
The research, which is published in the latest edition of the Irish Medical Journal, notes that two studies have found that the use of mobile phones while driving has been associated with a quadrupling of the risk of collision.
"Given the high rate of road fatalities in Ireland compared to other European countries, the high rate of usage of hand-held mobile phones is a risk factor that needs to be eliminated," the study said.
It said the high use by van-drivers was a concern, pointing out that it was likely the majority of van-drivers were at work at the time of driving.
It said all employers should instruct their drivers not to put themselves or other road-users at risk by using hand-held mobiles while driving.
The report said that in England and the US, where bans have been introduced on using mobiles while driving, there have been reductions of up to 50 per cent in the use of hand-held mobile phones by drivers.
Given the increased risk of accidents, it was imperative that legislation be introduced in Ireland to ban the use of phones while driving, the report added.
Dr Declan Bedford, a public health doctor in the northeast and one of the authors of the study, said the rate of mobile-phone use while driving was high when compared to rates reported in other countries.
Legislation was urgently required, he said.
In England the rate of hand-held mobile-phone use by drivers was 2 per cent, in New York it was 2.3 per cent, in Michigan it was 2.7 per cent, and in Spain a study put the rate at 3.3 per cent.
Dr Bedford said deaths on the road in the Republic were very high and there should be moves to reduce any risk. People were now even sending e-mails while stopped at traffic lights, he said.
A plan by the Department of Transport to make the use of mobile phones while driving an offence which would attract penalty points has been held up pending advice from the Attorney General and the drafting of new legislation, a spokesman for the department said yesterday.
He said any driver who was driving carelessly as a result of using a mobile phone could at present be prosecuted for careless driving or driving without due care and attention.
A total of 399 people were killed in crashes on Irish roads last year, but no figures are available on whether any of these were related to mobile-phone use.