Minister for Transport Martin Cullen is to announce full details of 31 new penalty-point offences for motorists tomorrow. When implemented in April, this will bring to 35 the number of offences for which motorists can be penalised.
The offences to be covered by the new system will focus on driver behaviour and are expected to include areas such as dangerous overtaking, blocking junctions, failure to obey traffic lights and offences on the motorway and hard shoulder.
Other areas where motorists may face points include failure to obey stop and yield signs, and crossing the central white lines.
A Garda computer system is expected to be ready to facilitate the introduction of the new points offences at that time.
Outlining details of the €1.5 billion national roads programme for this year, Mr Cullen also said he hoped to bring legislation on random breath-testing and the development of privately operated speed cameras before the current session of the Dáil.
However, he warned that gardaí in courts were frequently faced with "very sophisticated and very competent" barristers who "run rings around them" when it comes to cases for drink-driving.
Some 12,000 cases were brought against individuals annually, with only 3,000 or 25 per cent leading to convictions.
He said that in Ireland judges often focused on the procedures leading to the arrest. As a result, he suggested, drink-driving cases which failed should be sent directly to the Supreme Court.
Similarly, gardaí should be provided with legal representation when in court.
While he was not against a referendum on random breath-testing, he had not taken the issue to Government.
Mr Cullen said legislation for a new speed-camera network was ready to go before the current session of the Dáil. However, this required the Garda contract-tendering process to be completed.
Despite the decision to enlist the help of Department of Agriculture staff in addressing the driving-test backlog, Mr Cullen said there was still a need for the "temporary outsourcing" of testing.
Among the national road programme allocations during the first year of Transport 21 are:
Fine Gael transport spokeswoman Olivia Mitchell yesterday labelled the road-funding programme as "nothing new".
"It's basically the National Roads Authority's programme of works for 2006," she said.