The increased Garda enforcement over the weekend, which contributed to the substantial amount of speeding and drink driving offences detected, was widely welcomed yesterday.
A "substantial" number of extra gardai were deployed around the State on traffic duty over the bank holiday weekend to reduce the number of fatalities and offences on the roads.
Fine Gael TD Mr Brian Hayes said it was "very encouraging that the gardai are enforcing the law, as until now many feel it has been not so good".
He said a further method of improving road safety would be to assign a special Garda division, rather than local gardai, to each of the State's main routes, which would be dedicated to traffic offences on that road.
Mr Hayes said the Garda National Traffic Bureau currently "does not do enough" on the issue.
Mr Pat Costello, chief executive of the National Safety Council, welcomed the increase in detections, saying "from a road safety point of view, enforcement is the first line of attack".
The increase in the number of detections helped get across the message that motorists who broke the law would be caught and punished, he said.
Mr Costello said those caught last weekend would be deterred from doing it again.
The introduction of the penalty points system, targeted for the middle of next year, would be the "ultimate deterrent", where motorists who were found to have committed offences risked losing their licences.
He said this was in contrast to the current situation where people were fined, but there was no cumulative penalty.
Increased enforcement was very welcome, said a spokesman for the Department of the Environment and Local Government, as it was linked to the amount of offences detected.
A spokesman for the Labour Party said: "The high level of detection of offences by gardai over the weekend is both welcome and worrying. It shows that an intensive effort by gardai can result in more detections, but it also shows too many people are continuing to drive in a dangerous and reckless manner, despite all the public concern about road dangers".