Local gardaí step up detections on 'poor driver behaviour'

More unmarked vehicles are being introduced by An Garda Síochána following the success of new high-performance unmarked patrol cars, motorcycles, and a lorry cab last year. The aim of the vehicles is to detect ‘poor driver behaviour’ including texting on the phone.

Cavan-Monaghan Garda Division says it is currently issuing about 60 Fixed Charge Notices - which carry a €120 fine and three penalty points - a day to those found using their phone while driving. In 2024, the division issued a total of 21,500 Fixed Charge Notices.

The advice locally is: “When your eyes are on a phone while driving, they're not on the road as they need to be in order to keep yourself and others safe.”

Meanwhile, the unmarked cars that gardaí have deployed are Golf GTI-type cars - small hatchbacks that wouldn’t necessarily be expected to be a patrol car.

The unmarked HGV, which was deployed as part of the national garda operation on dual carriageways and motorways ‘Operation Iompair’ last September, resulted in the detection of more than 100 motorists breaking the law within a short period of time.

An Garda Síochána says the vehicles will be deployed around the country. Elsewhere, up to the end of November, there were nearly 48,000 checkpoints on Irish roads - an increase of 14% on 2023.