The head of the Garda National Traffic Bureau, Chief Superintendent Denis Fitzpatrick, yesterday said motor insurance companies should consider withdrawing insurance cover from drunk drivers who are involved in accidents.
This follows the release of figures yesterday which show that the number of people arrested for drink driving over Christmas and the new year has increased again.
In the five weeks to December 30th, 1,059 people were prosecuted under the relevant law, Section 49 of the Road Traffic Act. This is an increase of 79 on the same period last year.
The total number of people prosecuted for drink driving during the year was 10,433. This, too, reflected an increase from the previous year when 9,787 were prosecuted.
Supt Vincent Maguire, of the Traffic Bureau, said the increase in detections and prosecutions for drink driving showed "some people aren't getting the message".
He said the Garda had increased its capability to detect drunken drivers through the introduction of the evidential breath testing (EBT) systems in 22 Garda stations.
The equipment allows gardai to test urine samples for alcohol without the assistance of a doctor. By the end of this year there will be 44 EBT systems around the State.
The anti-drink driving campaign ran until Sunday night, so final figures will not be collated until the middle of this week.
However, Supt Maguire said that despite the publicity it had received, considerable numbers of people continued to drink and drive. He was concerned at the number of young people coming to Garda attention.
"We have 94 per cent employment and young people have money in their pockets. At that time of year they are out to enjoy themselves and unfortunately where people are enjoying themselves alcohol is often involved. Alcohol lowers the perception of danger."
One unusual aspect of the recent traffic statistics was that there were no fatal accidents between Christmas and New Year. Supt Maguire said this was probably due to the bad weather, which forced drivers off the roads.
Some 415 people were killed on the roads during the year, an increase of two on 1999. Despite this, the number of accidents in which fatalities occurred fell from 374 in 1999 to 362 last year.
The superintendent said that with new cars coming on to the road at a rate of 6,000 a week during 2000, the underlying trend in road accidents and deaths was down.
He said the resources being devoted to policing traffic were having an impact but there was still resistance.
Last year 3,865 people were charged with dangerous driving. Some 5,137 were charged with the less serious offence of careless driving and another 3,900 with driving without reasonable consideration for others. The Garda issued 224,264 fixed-penalty fines for speeding.