Some 1,867 people were arrested for alleged drink-driving offences by the Garda during the annual Christmas and New Year road safety campaign, according to figures released today.
The Garda said the campaign ran from November 27 th2005 until January 8 thlast.
The number arrested each week ranges from a high of 336 in the third week to a low of 251 in the final week of the safety drive.
In the six-week period, a total of 48 people - six more than in the same period in 2004 - died on the State's roads, in some of the worst road death statistics seen since the introduction of the penalty points system in 2002.
A total of 1622 people were arrested over the Christmas 2004 period.
The arrests in the most recent safety campaign mark an increase of around 15 per cent.
Meanwhile, 14 people have been killed on the State's roads since the beginning of this year, an increase of five (55 per cent) on the nine killed during the same two weeks of 2005.
Five people have died on the roads in the last seven days.
Seven, or exactly half of those killed to date this year were pedestrians. Six of those who have died were drivers and one motorcyclist also lost his life.