Suggestions that penalty points should be doubled over the Bank Holiday weekend have been rubbished by Galway West TD Michael D Higgins, who said that the idea "smacks of hype".

The Labour Party President slammed Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey for his "head-line grabbing" antics and said that the focus should instead be on universal enforcement of existing laws.

"Reports that Transport Minister Noel Dempsey is considering doubling the penalty points for a number of motoring offences over bank holiday weekends smacks of more hype and hot air from the Minister. It is a sad truth that currently there tends to be deaths on our roads on every single bank holiday weekend. Indeed, the collating of the numbers of tragic deaths on the news on Monday evenings after bank holidays has become a grim and recurrent aspect of those weekends.

"And in these heartbreaking circumstances, what response do we get from the Minister? Yet another headline-grabbing scheme. That is all. Why, instead, doesn't the Minister urgently ensure that we have universal enforcement of all current traffic and motoring laws? Questions have already been raised about the effective operation of the current penalty points regime!"

Minister Higgins said that many motorists were not complying with the system and he appealed to the Minister to pay more than "lip service" when trying to solve the problem.

"For example, figures from the Courts Service last year highlighted the fact that up to 50 per cent of all motorists are not paying fines accrued for offences such as speeding and not wearing a seatbelts. It was estimated that in total only 50 to 60 per cent of traffic fines were being paid and that a significant number of motorists who had received 12 penalty points were not voluntarily giving up their license, as they are obliged under law to do.

"Paying lip service to the crucial issue of road safety is simply not good enough. I welcome any proposal which might help to reduce fatalities on our roads, but such proposals must be more than PR spin."

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