Motorists who are disqualified from driving in the North and the UK will also be automatically banned in the South from next April under a new harmonised system agreed between the governments, writes Kitty Holland.
The introduction of a reciprocal penalty points system between Ireland and Britain has also been agreed, and will be in place later next year.
The initiative was agreed at last week's British-Irish Council meeting in Belfast after Taoiseach Bertie Ahern raised the issue of Northern-registered drivers committing motoring, and in particular speeding offences, in the South.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern also pressed the issue at the meeting.
A spokesman for Dermot Ahern said yesterday that the council concluded "it should continue to build on the valuable progress made in the area of road safety - including a more consistent approach to driver disqualification and lesser offences".
He said as a Minister from a Border area he saw "on a daily basis the carnage on the roads". Of particular concern were speeding and drink-driving offences.
"This is a major step towards increasing road safety in Border areas," said the spokesman.
Up until the end of last year, over 60,000 drivers had incurred penalty points in the South which were not imposed because "no driver number" was available - ie they were registered outside the jurisdiction. It is thought the majority of these were from Britain and the North. One-sixth of drivers caught speeding last year escaped penalty points because they were in Northern-registered vehicles.
Legislation is already in place in the South to implement the reciprocal recognition of driver disqualification under the Road Traffic Act, 2002, which gave effect to the EU Convention on Driving Disqualifications.
However, while we are ready to implement the arrangement the necessary legislation has not been enacted in the North or in Britain.
At last week's British-Irish Council meeting it is understood a commitment was given to have the legislation on recognising driver disqualification in place in London by April.
It will take longer to put in place a uniform penalty points system as there are different systems operating in the three jurisdictions, with different points allocated for the same offences in some instances.
For instance, while speeding incurs two points on payment of a fine and four on a court conviction in the South, it attracts three to six points in the North.
Failure to stop at a stop line incurs three points in the North and two to four in the South. There are also some offences which attract points here, such as driving while using a mobile phone, which do not in the North.