All you need to know about speed limits and cameras, tyres, alcohol limits, penalty points, tax, insurance and registration.

Speed

The highest national speed limit is 120km/h, which applies on motorways. The 100km/h limit applies on national primary routes, 80km/h on secondary roads and posted speed limits of 60km/h and 50km/h in built-up areas.

The conversion from imperial to metric speed limits saw the motorway and national primary speed limits rise slightly but the Government and the Road Safety Authority felt that 100km/h was too high for most secondary roads in the country, so the limit was dropped from the old 60mph to 80km/h (49.7mph).

Tyres

1.6mms of thread depth is the minimum allowed under the law.

The Irish Tyre Industry Association thinks it should be 2mms, because at 1.6mms of thread depth the tyre is well on its way out already.

The Road Safety Authority has a tyre depth gauge for motorists to check the thread depth on tyres.

Remoulds, worn out tyres that have been refitted with new thread to prolong their life, have become far less common in Ireland although they are still available. They are cheaper than brand new tyres, being basically rebuilt used tyres.

Any defect such as a bulge in the sidewall or obvious loss of tyre pressure could get you pulled over although to be honest I have never heard of a Garda pulling someone in for having poor tyres.

I have known people who have been pulled in for other offences and then got ticketed for having dodgy tyres into the bargain.

Illegal tyres, particularly if they are very bald, could have very serious consequences for you if you get into an accident. Not only will stopping distances increase and the car lose grip more easily in an avoidance situation but the Gardai do look at tyre condition after an accident to determine if they were a factor in causing the accident in the first place.

If you crash a car with no thread, the insurance company might refuse to pay.

Alcohol

The 1994 road traffic act has set the legal blood alcohol limit at 80mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood and 107mg of alcohol per 100ml of urine.

It is difficult to determine exactly how much a person can legally drink before they get behind the wheel, since body mass index and metabolism are two factors which affect an individual’s blood alcohol reading.

A slender female would, for example, be more prone to being over the legal limit than an obese male even after the same amount of alcohol.

Gardai now have the ability to randomly breath-test drivers; previously they would have to first form an opinion that a driver had been drinking. If you are breathalysed by a garda while you are over the limit, they will arrest you.

The drink drive limit in Ireland is actually higher than the average EU drink drive limit of 50mg/100ml, so even if you are at the legal limit you are may still not be in a condition to drive.

For more analysis on the subject of the effect of alcohol in road crashes in Ireland, the Road Safety Authority has produced a booklet.

Penalty Points

Ireland is still one of relatively few countries that use a points system. Thirty-six offences are now punishable with penalty points.

Controversially, driving without insurance is one of the offences covered by the points system, despite the fact that driving without insurance is not a safety-related offence.

Most of the offences such as speeding, using a mobile phone while driving and driving on the hard shoulder of a motorway carry a two-point penalty.

Oddly, the offence of “driving a vehicle on a motorway against the flow of traffic” also nets you a mere two points and an €80 fine despite the potential seriousness of that offence, although if a Garda catches a driver travelling the wrong way up the motorway a charge of dangerous driving could be brought.

Since the introduction of penalty points up to October 2006, according to the penalty points website at www.penaltypoints.ie, 29,368 of the 34,677 people in the Cork area who were given points on their licences were given them because of speeding.

In the same period 136 people were issued with points for an unrestrained child in rear of a car while 64 people got points in relation to an overtaking offence.

Tax, insurance and registration

Gardai are starting to hassle people who do not adhere to the standard for registration plates.

The standard is: - Bold black lettering against a white background - Display of the European emblem with twelve gold stars - IRL to be shown in white lettering against a blue background.

If you deviate from this standard in terms of font, colouring or by having anything else on the number-plate, you increase your chances of getting a tug from the Gardai.

Speed cameras

Ireland is about to get a rude awakening. A speed camera, sometimes referred to as a safety camera and often referred to as a Gatso, makes a record of any car that passes the camera at a speed greater than the speed limit.

Speed cameras are visible on UK roads after a court ruled a number of years ago in favour of a motorist who was caught by one.

The driver’s solicitor argued that by having the camera painted grey and by concealing it, it was not a safety feature; merely a revenue-generating device.

The handful of cameras in Ireland are grey and concealed and it looks likely this will remain the case.

You may not notice the camera, but you should notice a series of painted white stripes on the road. The camera needs these stripes to calibrate the speed of the car as it passes. The time it takes the car to travel over these stripes is determined and if the car, or indeed any vehicle, travels across these stripes at a faster rate then the speed limit, it triggers a camera which takes a number of pictures of the rear of the car.

It should be noted that all cameras available are rearward facing and not all of them flash.

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