Drivers who speed repeatedly or breach other traffic regulations will face automatic disqualification under a new penalty points licence endorsement system to be introduced early next year.
Drivers who accumulate 12 penalty points on their licence - where standard offences are allocated either one or two points - will lose it for six months. Maximum fines for general offences such as speeding will also be increased from £150 to £631 (€800).
Gardai will be able to use cameras to prove speeding or other offences. At present, there are just four roadside cameras and they are operated in rotation between 20 locations and are only used to detect speeding. Each camera costs £70,000. They have detected almost 50,000 speeding cases since they were introduced last April on the M50, N1, N2, N3 and N4.
Details of the new measures are contained in the Road Traffic Bill 2001 published yesterday by the Minister for the Environment and Local Government, Mr Dempsey. The chief executive of the National Safety Council, Mr Pat Costello, said he looked forward to early implementation as "it will go a long way to reducing the carnage on our roads".
The Automobile Association, which had criticised the delay in introducing a points system promised in the Government's 1998-2002 road safety strategy, also welcomed the Bill.
It said it was pleased offences which did not have a bearing on road safety - such as bus lane or yellow box violations - would not be covered by penalty points.
