The number of motorists detected speeding by gardaí has halved since penalty points were introduced in 2002 despite increasing road deaths in the same period, it has emerged.
News of the declining detection rates is a major embarrassment for the Government, coming as it does just after the launch by the Minister for Transport, Martin Cullen, of 31 new offences under the penalty points system.
A spokesman for Mr Cullen said the dramatic fall off in the numbers being detected speeding was not an issue for the Minister or his department.
"We set the policy but we don't have a responsibility for enforcement," the spokesman said.
In 2001, when speeding infringements were punished with a fine, 272,229 motorists were fined, according to new Department of Justice figures.
In late 2002 penalty points were introduced and those caught speeding have been fined and have also incurred penalty points. Since then the number of motorists being caught speeding has declined by almost 50 per cent.
The decline began immediately on the introduction of points in November 2002 with 246,196 people being caught and punished in 2002, down 26,000 on the previous year.
That decline accelerated sharply in 2003, the first full year of penalty points, with 157,852 motorists being detected and penalised, down 35 per cent.
That figure fell further in 2004 to 141,723 cases before increasing slightly to 143,651 last year. Road deaths in the period increased from 376 in 2002 to 399 last year.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Justice said enforcement efforts by gardaí were currently directed mainly towards identified collision-prone locations and were focused on changing driver behaviour and reducing speed.
The planned increase in numbers in the Garda Traffic Corps from 570 to 1,200 by 2008 would enhance enforcement as would the outsourcing of speed cameras.
The speeding figures were supplied by the Department of Justice to Labour transport spokeswoman Róisín Shortall after she tabled a parliamentary question.
Ms Shortall told The Irish Times it was clear enforcement had declined under penalty points.
"It beggars belief that this has happened," she said. "I don't believe for a second, and I don't think anybody else will, that fewer people have been caught because everybody has slowed down. The numbers of fatalities are up so that doesn't stack up."
AA Roadwatch director of public affairs Conor Faughnan said it was disappointing that the number of people being punished for speeding had declined at a time when road deaths had increased. "It's a national embarrassment and it shows that we are way behind on the enforcement side of things," he said.
At the formal launch of the 31 new offences under the penalty points system yesterday, Mr Cullen said motorists needed to drive more carefully.
He said computerisation of the penalty points system would be operational from Monday when the new offences came into force. Random breath testing and legislation outlawing mobile phone use while driving are imminent, he said. Among the 31 new offences are dangerous overtaking, failure to obey traffic lights and failure to obey stop and yield signs.
