The computer software needed to implement fully the penalty points system is now being installed at Garda headquarters, Dublin, and is expected to be fully operational in the second quarter of next year.
The company developing the €7.4 million system, Fujitsu Consulting, last night confirmed its technicians expect to have the system installed next month. It will undergo a rigorous trial period before being rolled out.
News that the system has entered installation phase comes in the same week that figures revealed drink driving on Irish roads was still a major problem.
The figures show that the number of motorists breath-tested dropped in the first two weeks of the Christmas drink-driving clampdown from 849 last year to 519.
However, the number of arrests fell by only one to 548.
The Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, plans to add an offence of careless driving and dangerous overtaking before March.
Those two new offences will be added to the current penalty point offences of speeding, non-wearing of seat belts and driving without insurance.
When the computer system is operational, up to 10 new offences will be added.
A spokesman for the Minister said Mr Brennan was anxious to introduce the two new offences before the computer system goes live because overtaking and careless driving caused many fatal and other serious accidents.
After the computerised system becomes operational, the remaining 65 offences will be added over a number of years. The Minister's spokesman said the implementation would be phased in to give motorists time to "get used to the new system".
More than 66,000 drivers have incurred penalty points on their licences in the first year of the scheme.
A total of 66,603 drivers have been given penalty points summarily by gardaí, with a further 104 receiving points through cases processed by the courts. Over 9,000 drivers penalised were either unlicensed or living outside the State.
