A new survey has revealed that 56 per cent of motorists admit to speeding, a 14 percentage point reduction on 2006.
Department of Transport figures show that speeding is still the offence most drivers receive penalty points for, with 18,000 receiving points in the first six months of 2007.
Brendan Murphy, Irish Insurance Federation
The nationwide survey carried out by Lansdowne Market Research for the Irish Insurance Federation (IIF), also showed six out of 10 motorists believed they were likely to be caught if driving while over the legal alcohol limit. The figure for 2006 was 46 per cent. However, 10 per cent of drivers still admit to 'drink driving'.
Despite it being an offence to use a mobile phone while driving since last September, the survey shows that 40 per cent of drivers admitted to making calls when driving while almost 20 per cent admitted to texting.
From September to June, 12,655 motorists received penalty points on their licenses for using a mobile phone while driving.
The survey also revealed that 57 per cent admitted to driving when tired; more than 2 out of 10 admitted to dangerous overtaking; 3 out of 10 admitted to expressing their road rage and, similar to last year's figure, 20 per cent of respondents admitted to not wearing a seat belt.
Perception of the effectiveness of the penalty points system have improved with 62 per cent of respondents believing it to be effective, compared to 31 per cent in 2006.
Better enforcement of road safety laws by the Garda and increased penalties for those who commit serious traffic offences were seen as the most effective measures to improve road safety.
Commenting on the findings, IIF's deputy-president Brendan Murphy said: "It is heartening to see a change in people's attitudes towards road safety. Many of the statistics quoted in the report have improved since last year. The legislation on random breath testing combined with an increased enforcement effort from the gardaí are directly related to the decrease in fatalities on our roads."
"However, the survey also demonstrates that there is still a lot of work to do. Getting breath test numbers up to 30,000 per month has been a good achievement but we have still not reached the target of 460,000 annual breath tests as set out in the last National Road Safety strategy.
"I would also hope that the statistics on speeding will show significant improvement when the national speed camera programme (also promised in the last strategy) is finally rolled out."