Half of all Irish motorists use a phone while driving, and one-third send texts at the wheel, according to a survey published today.
The results came in research involving more than 10,000 Irish motorists in the latest AA Motorists Panel survey.
Of the 10,623 questioned, 1.6 per cent of the respondents said they "daily" used a handheld phone while driving, 3.4 per cent said they "regularly" did so, 14.2 per cent said "occasionally", 30.7 per cent said "seldom", while 50.1 per cent answered "never".
When asked if they texted while driving, 0.8 per cent said "daily", 2.4 per cent "regularly", 9.9 per cent "occasionally", 20.4 per cent "seldom" and 66.5 per cent "never".
"The great majority of motorists will only use a phone occasionally or never at all," said director of policy Conor Faughnan. "At the other extreme, there are about 3 per cent to 5 per cent who have the dreadful habit of phoning or texting regularly."
"There is a small minority that clearly does not get the safety message and are using their phones all the time," he said.
The Road Safety Authority published figures this week that showed that 75,000 penalty points notices were issued for phone use last year.
"It is clearly a widespread problem," said Mr Faughnan. "It is obviously a dangerous behaviour to use the phone on the road but just as obviously we can all see that it happens every day. It's a silly way to get penalty points and motorists have been warned."