The number of road deaths and drink-driving arrests increased during the Christmas and New Year road safety campaign.
There were 48 road deaths in the Republic during the six-week Garda campaign up to January 8th, compared with 42 in the same period 12 months earlier.
Drink-driving arrests in the six weeks totalled 1,867, a 15 per cent increase on the 1,622 arrests a year earlier. Twelve months ago arrests exceeded 300 in only one week of the six-week safety campaign.
However, during the six weeks of the most recent holiday period arrests exceeded 300 in five of the six weeks.
The latest campaign was the first staged by the new Garda Traffic Corps, which was created 12 months ago.
It was also the first time that so-called "super checkpoints" were set up. These were staffed by up to 20 gardaí who engaged all passing motorists in conversation to form an opinion on whether they had been drinking.
In the absence of random breath-testing, such checkpoints are the only opportunity gardaí have to examine motorists on a targeted road. Under the law gardaí must form an opinion that a motorist is under the influence of an intoxicant before he or she can be subjected to a urine or breath test.
To date this year there have been 12 deaths compared with nine in the same period last year.
