Gardai armed with new equipment will mount some 40,000 road checkpoints during the Christmas season in an effort to reduce drink-driving deaths.
The Garda is introducing three new camera vehicles, bringing the fleet of unmarked speed-detection vans to five. A new alcohol breath test is to be introduced.
At the launch of the Christmas anti-drink-driving campaign, the Deputy Commissioner, Mr Peter Fitzgerald, said gardai would use "evidential" breath-testing equipment during Christmas on a trial basis.
The results of this breathalyser could be used for prosecution, eliminating the need for blood or urine tests after the motorist was breathalysed, he said. Its use would be phased in next year.
The campaign between November 30th and January 9th will target four causes of road deaths and injury: drink-driving, speeding, failure to wear a seat belt and dangerous driving.
Mr Fitzgerald urged staff in bars, hotels and restaurants not to serve drink to people who "quite obviously might be a danger to themselves and others". People organising Christmas parties should lay on alternative transport.
Garda figures issued yesterday show a fall in road deaths so far this year. Some 377 people died up to the end of October, compared with 390 in the same period last year.
The Minister of State for the Environment and Local Government, Mr Robert Molloy, said at least £300 million would be spent on alcohol over Christmas.
The chairman of the National Safety Council, Mr Cartan Finegan, said about 40 per cent of road deaths were estimated to be drink-related.
"The mix of enforcement and publicity has undoubtedly brought about a change in attitude to drink-driving in recent years, but too many mature drivers - predominantly self-styled `hard men' - still appear impervious to the message.
"Part of this is a wholly misplaced belief in their ability to drive under the influence of alcohol," he said. The group most vulnerable to drinking and driving was motorists aged 17 to 24. The influence of alcohol on a young driver was several times greater than on a mature adult.
The camera vehicles can video and record the speed of two cars a second, logging their registration numbers. The chief executive of the Irish Insurance Federation, Mr Michael Kemp, however, said most of the information gathered in this way had to be transcribed into the ticket-issuing system by hand.
He was disappointed that the recent Estimates had made no mention of funding for a system which would process the information straight from those records and write the tickets, which could mean many speeding tickets going out at the same time, he said.