More than 153,000 drivers have penalty points
Those who accumulated 12 penalty points and who have been put off the road for six months had their licences issued in north Tipperary, Carlow and Cork.
The north Tipperary driver was the first person to be disqualified under the new system a couple of months ago.
Figures from the Department of Transport show the vast majority of penalised motorists (139,437) have two points.
The next highest figure (12,023) are motorists who have four and there is a big drop off after that.
Transport Minister Seamus Brennan said most drivers had remained on two points indicating they had learned their lesson and changed their road behaviour.
Full computerisation of the points system within months will allow the minister to add further offences, particularly serious offences that are contributing to deaths and injuries.
The minister said he was especially concerned about the increase in the number of single vehicle accidents this year.
Between January and the end of June, there have been 68 collisions involving single vehicles, resulting in 76 deaths, compared to 57 single vehicle collisions and 65 deaths over the same period in 2003.
He has asked the Medical Bureau of Road Safety to analyse factors that might be contributing to the trend in serious accidents, particularly between 11pm and 4am at weekends.
There have been 569 road deaths in the 20-month period to the end of last June - 113 less than the previous 20-month period when there were 675 road fatalities.
Brian Farrell of the National Safety Council was delighted that the figures were showing that people were wising up after receiving two penalty points.
"Every time we go out on the roads we have be to safety conscious because using the roads is the most dangerous thing we do every day," he said.
The number of young men drivers who die on the roads, at 30% of the total, was also cause of concern. "I would appeal to the mothers and girlfriends of these drivers to plead with them to take more care on the roads," he said.
And he said he was just amazed that so many drivers got penalty points for not putting seatbelts on children.
"No parent would willingly put their child in danger but that's what they do when they are not wearing seatbelts," he said.
Meanwhile, two young men died in road accidents over the weekend.
They included Hayden Foster, 21, from Piltown, Co Kilkenny, who was a front seat passenger in a car which crashed at Three Bridges, Carrick-on-Suir, Co Tipperary, at 3am yesterday. No other vehicle was involved. The driver of the car was treated for shock and other injuries.
On Saturday evening pillion passenger Mark Jeffers, 24, of Clonegal, Co Carlow, died when the motorbike he was on lost control and hit a ditch at Tombreen, Carnew, Co Wicklow.
The driver of the bike was taken to Waterford General Hospital with serious injuries.
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