Ireland 13th in EU for road-safety enforcement

Ireland has been ranked 13th of the 25 EU member states when it comes to the enforcement of road-safety laws.

The ranking is contained in a report published today by the Brussels-based European Transport Safety Council.

The report focuses on efforts by EU member states to combat drink-driving, speeding and the non-wearing of seat-belts.

It says Ireland conducts the second-lowest level of drink-driving checks in the EU and also points to the extremely low number of speed cameras in the country.

The ETSC is recommending an increase in speed cameras, the introduction of random breath-testing and the expansion of the penalty points system to include more road-traffic offences.

It also says more gardaí should be assigned to the Traffic Corps to increase the number of drink-driving checks being carried out.