Minister: Road safety measures appear to be failing

Junior Transport Minister Pat 'the Cope' Gallagher has admitted that the extension of the penalty points scheme appears to have failed in its aim to change driver behaviour.

The scheme was extended to include 31 more offences earlier this month.

The Government said it hoped this would encourage motorists to drive more carefully, but nine people were killed in road accidents in the Republic over the Easter weekend, one of the highest death tolls on record.

Speaking about the matter this morning, Mr Gallagher said he was disappointed that measures to improve road safety appear to be failing.

"We would have thought that the introduction of the [new] penalty-point offences would have had an impact, as did the original four," he said.

"We are disappointed [that this was not the case]."