Despite its promise to publish the new Road Traffic Bill - which is expected to include major measures aimed at reducing road deaths - before Christmas, the Government has confirmed it will be unable to do so until the new year.
A spokesman for the Department of the Environment and Local Government said that although work on the new Bill was almost complete, there had been "some hold-ups" and it would not now be enacted until "early in the new year".
The news comes as the death toll since last weekend reached 16 last night. The figure includes a toll on Wednesday when seven people were killed in one 24-hour period.
A central aspect of the new Bill will be a penalty points system.
A similar system operates already in Britain. There a motorist is banned from driving for at least three months if he or she accumulates 12 points or more during a three-year period. When introduced here it will be part of the Government's strategy on road safety up to 2002, as outlined in The Road To Safety.
Published in 1998 this sets as its primary target a reduction in "Irish road fatalities by 2002 by a minimum of 20 per cent on their 1997 level". Many, including Supt Vincent McGuire, deputy in charge of the Garda National Traffic Bureau, and Ms Gertie Shields, chairwoman of Mothers Against Drunken Drivers, believe legislation is the only thing that will reduce the number of people being killed on the roads.
The majority of Irish road users, said Ms Shields, were complacent about safety unless legislation was introduced which forced them to behave more safely.
However, despite the Wednesday evening toll of seven deaths, the number of people being killed is coming down, as targets set by the Government are being met.
The target, of a reduction of 20 per cent over five years, was set against a backdrop of 472 deaths in 424 fatal accidents in 1997. Some 19 more deaths than in 1996, it was yet another annual increase since 1994.
Over the past two years, however, the figures have been falling slowly, with 458 deaths last year and 358 so far this year.
Those most likely to die on the roads remain 16 to 20 year olds, men, and anybody - motorists, cyclists, passengers or pedestrians - on the roads between 9 p.m. and 3 a.m. The primary causes of death are alcohol, speed and nonwearing of seat-belts.
Supportive targets were also set in 1998. These included an aim to reduce speeding by 50 per cent; to increase the wearing of front and rear seat belts to at least 85 per cent; to reduce the number of fatal road accidents during darkness by at least 25 per cent and to implement traffic reduction measures in at least 400 new locations.
These, too, are being met, says this year's Progress Report on The Road To Safety strategy. Even taking in last Wednesday's toll, there remained nine fewer deaths on the roads than up to the same time last year, said Supt McGuire.
"That's not just luck. It's down to the measures and efforts that have been put in place since Operation Lifesaver in 1997."
Piloted by the Meath/Louth division, the operation has seen an increase in the number of gardai in the Traffic Bureau, an extension of on-the-spot fines to the non-wearing of seat-belts and a "major upgrading of Garda IT systems relevant to enforcement".
In the past fortnight the Department of Justice has announced plans to introduce a new alcohol breath-testing machine to Garda stations at Castlebar, Co Mayo and Pearse Street in Dublin. The Alchometer machines, which will be installed in the stations before Christmas, will mean a doctor need not be called when gardai want to take a blood or urine sample. The machines should, says the Department, increase the rate for drink-driving convictions.
There have also been numerous publicity campaigns spearheaded by the National Safety Council, such as last weekend's Fly The Flag campaign.
It involved a pledge by motorists who flew a small white flag from their car that they would not drink and drive, would drive at an appropriate speed and would wear a seat-belt. How successful it was is open to debate, however, as few cars were seen - around the Dublin area at least - "flying the flag".
As well as the penalty points system, future measures include national car testing, to begin on January 4th, 2000.
The decline in fatalities, though slow in coming, appears more impressive when viewed against the number of new cars coming on the roads. With two months to run this year 160,466 new cars have already been registered, compared with 146,143 for the whole of last year, 136,890 in 1997, 115,126 in 1996, 87,204 in 1995 and just 80,391 in 1994.