With wet weather set to continue over much of the weekend the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, has urged drivers to make safety their first priority.
"I would urge all those who use our roads to exercise extra caution particularly over the August bank holiday period when thousands of extra journeys will be made by car and road users are travelling on unfamiliar roads," he said.
The Minister noted the high number of road deaths so far this year. 228 people have lost their lives on the roads this year, 21 of those died over the St Patrick's, Easter, May bank holiday and June bank holiday weekends.
"All accidents must be regarded as preventable, and all avoidable loss of life is tragic," he said.
"By taking some simple advice, we can reduce the level of road deaths and serious injuries. Put your seatbelts on, observe the speed limit and never drink and drive," he added.
AA Roadwatch is also asking all drivers to be vigilant and exercise caution over the remainder of the bank holiday.
"We're urging people to keep their headlights dipped during daylight hours to improve visibility, in line with the Dublin City Council campaign," Ms Emma Caulfield of AA Roadwatch said. Although the bulk of holiday traffic will have died down by lunchtime today, AA Roadwatch reminded drivers that key routes will be particularly busy on Sunday evening and all day Monday as holidaymakers return home. The roads to Dublin from Armagh, Sligo, Galway and Kerry on Sunday and Cork, Mayo and Donegal on Monday will be particularly busy with sports fans travelling to the All-Ireland football quarter-finals in Croke Park.
More than 65,000 spectators are expected at the Sunday match with a crowd of 78,000 due on Monday.
The roads around Galway are still busy with racegoers and are likely to remain so until the end of the festival tomorrow evening.
The races start at 2.30 p.m. and end at 5 p.m. today and Sunday.
Gates will open two-and-a-half hours before the first race and all routes to the racecourse are clearly marked by AA signs.
Waterford city will also be busy today and tomorrow for the Spraoi Festival.
There will be traffic diversions and road closures until 5 p.m. tomorrow evening.
The country was split down the middle yesterday with pouring rain in the east and almost excessive sunshine along the west coast.
However, eastern dwellers are to get their break this afternoon, Dr Aidan Nulty of Met Éireann said.
"It will be a fairly cloudy start but rain in the east and south should die down this afternoon. The west and north will be mostly dry with some sunshine in the afternoon."
Temperatures will range from 18-22 degrees he said.
