THE number of motorists being hit with penalty points for speeding or other dangerous driving is starting to show a decline.

Figures obtained by the Sunday Tribune reveal that the number of people getting points each month has dropped from a high of 8,411 in 2008 to 7,088 so far this year.

The decline is in the order of 16% and appears to reflect a fall in the amount of garda overtime now available, according to some officers.

Opposition TDs have said that road safety should not be sacrificed due to economic cutbacks and instead, should be prioritised.

Labour's Tommy Broug­han said: "There has been a lot of concern that garda overtime has been seriously cut back at a time when we were looking forward to the Garda Traffic Corps getting up to full complement.

"These figures indicate that people now have a better chance of escaping the rigours of the law because checks are not in place for speeding and so on.

"You would wonder if there has been as much enforcement in the last number of months. The first three months of this year were very bad in terms of road deaths and this May just gone by was horrendous and significantly worse than last year.

"Gay Byrne [chairman of the Road Safety Authority] made the point that enforcement has to remain a priority because if we do not put the resources into it, we know what will happen."

Penalty point figures were particularly low in the first two months of the year when just 11,122 people were penalised for driving offences.

There was a significant increase in March, coinciding with the annual road traffic campaign during St Patrick's weekend, which saw 9,120 offences detected.

However, that rise was reversed the following month when 7,962 people got points while just 7,228 got nabbed in May, the latest month for which figures are available.

The figures are in marked contrast to last year, when more than 10,000 people a month were being hit.

Gardaí said that other reasons may have been at work in the reduction of penalty points, including the possibility of improved driving and fewer foreign cars on the road.

One senior officer said: "There are many factors at play here but there is no doubt the reduced resources available to gardaí are the most significant contributor."

The record for penalty points came last July when a massive enforcement campaign led to 15,388 drivers getting points added to their licence.

Despite that, July remains the month most dangerous on the Irish roads with the number of fatalities consistently above average.