Offaly drivers got most penalty points last year

Motorists from Offaly were more likely to be caught committing a traffic offence that incurred penalty points last year than drivers from any other county.

An analysis of figures published by the Road Safety Authority reveals licence holders from the Faithful County were the most likely to have picked up penalty points for motoring offences during 2023.

The latest figures show 6.2pc of all motorists in Offaly had penalty points applied to their driving licence last year compared with the national average of 5.3pc — about one in 20 of all registered drivers.

Other counties with a comparatively high proportion of road traffic offenders included Longford (6pc), Tipperary (5.8pc), Laois (5.7pc) and Wexford (5.5pc). In contrast, licence holders in

Donegal had the lowest level of motorists with penalty points of anywhere in the country by some distance with just 3.4pc picking up penalty points last year.

Other areas of the north-west also recorded comparatively low rates, including Leitrim and Sligo (both 4pc) and Mayo (4.2pc).

Parts of the north-east, including Louth, Meath and Monaghan, also had a below-average proportion of registered motorists obtaining penalty points last year.

A similar pattern is evident with the rolling three-year basis for which penalty points are counted, with 19.1pc of all motorists in Offaly — almost one in five — having active penalty points recorded on their licence at the end of last year.

The high level of offending by motorists from Offaly compares to the national average of 15.9pc of all drivers with penalty points and contrasts sharply with the lowest level found in Donegal of 11.0pc.

Figures show that motorists caught speeding accounted for almost three-quarters of all penalty point offences last year.

More than 134,000 speeding offences were recorded out of a total of just under 181,500 offences for which penalty points were handed out. It equates to almost 4pc of the country’s 3.4 million full licence holders and those with learner permits picking up a speeding fine last year.

However, the total number of penalty point offences detected last year was down 6pc on 2022 figures, including a 9pc decrease in numbers caught speeding.

The number of drivers and passengers in vehicles found not to be wearing seatbelts dropped by 11pc to 2,668.

The detection of incidents of bad driving has now been falling annually since 2021 when over 216,500 penalty point offences were recorded.

Last year’s total was also below the 2020 level of almost 198,600 offences — the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic when there were much lower traffic levels around the country.

The road safety group PARC has expressed concern that the decrease in detection of penalty point offences last year was more indicative of reduced enforcement levels than improved driving behaviour.

PARC chairperson Susan Gray said the figures represented “the tip of the iceberg” as they only captured motorists caught committing road traffic offences, while many more were going undetected and unpunished.

“We are worried that a greater number of motorists are engaging in bad driving behaviour because of the lack of visibility by gardaí on the roads,” she said.

“While there is a strong presence of roads policing by gardaí at bank holiday weekends, we really need to see the same level every weekend of the year,” she added.