New driving laws will see the introduction of an N-plate and a stricter penalty points system for inexperienced drivers.
Under rules set to become law next summer qualified drivers with less than two years’ experience will have to display an N-plate, similar to a learner driver’s L-plate, on their vehicle. Novice drivers will also be subject to the lower drink drive level and a penalty point limit of six points.
Currently a driver is put off the road if they accumulate 12 penalty points within a three-year period.
The Road Safety Authority (RSA) also wants judges to have the power to force a drivers to re-sit their driving test if they commit certain types of driving offences.
RSA chief executive Noel Brett said young and inexperienced drivers are most at risk of killing or being killed on Irish roads. He said he wanted to see penalty points being enforced for learner drivers who failed to display their L-plates.
The new measures should “create a culture amongst newly qualified drivers of understanding their inexperience and understanding they are novices,” he told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.
There have been 135 deaths on Irish roads this year, eight fewer than at this time last year. Ireland, now in its seventh consecutive year of road death reductions, is ranked sixth-safest country in Europe for driving.
“Our citizens absolutely deserve us to be the very safest,” Mr Brett said.
