More people being caught using phones while driving each year
More people are being caught using their phone while driving, with almost 60,000 offences landing fines and penalty points over the last three years.
Amid another bank holiday clampdown on drivers flouting road safety laws, new figures from the department of justice show that from 2022 to 2024, a total of 59,603 people were caught by gardaí driving while on the phone.
The data also suggests the problem is worsening, with 21,888 people caught last year compared to 19,106 in 2023, and 18,609 in 2022.
For the first three months of this year, 6,073 people were caught using their phones while driving, meaning 2025 is on course to be the worst year yet.
Senior gardaí have warned that drivers are increasingly being caught watching Netflix on their phones as well as having online work meetings and social media interactions.
Road safety advocates are calling for strict new policies whereby if a motorist is caught on the phone twice they are disqualified from driving.
Fianna Fáil TD Padraig O'Sullivan, who received the data via parliamentary question, said he is concerned about the 'steady increase' in people driving with their phones out, but said the figures for 2025 show there could be a further increase if the trend continues.
I see it every day as I drive the roads of my own constituency and the motorway to Leinster House. The prevalence and acceptance of these habits when behind the wheel is extremely concerning.
Mr O'Sullivan believes the increase in individual's using phones while driving is 'largely attributable' to the increase in the number of accidents seen across the country in recent years.
The department of justice has also detailed road policing activity during the recent Easter bank holiday weekend, when 225 fines were issued to individuals caught driving while using their phones.
'If that level of Garda operations was done every weekend, the possible number of offences would be enormous,' Mr O'Sullivan said.
The Fianna Fáil TD said the Easter garda operation is typically one of the more significant enforcement periods, but that the figures again show that the "casual use of the mobile phone while driving has become the norm for so many people'.
Irish Road Victims Association vice president Leo Lieghio, was highly critical of the Government for not doing more to penalise drivers who flout laws around distracted driving.
He said the figures on phone use were 'disgraceful' and that the association has long called for stricter penalties for driving while using a mobile phone.
We have been screaming for a long, long time. We want double penalty points brought in.
He said increasing fines would not impact on whether or not someone uses their phone while driving, but that doubling penalty points from three to six would be a real deterrent.
'The only thing that's going to work is double penalty points. If you're caught once, you get six penalty points, that's your chance.
'If you're caught again, you're off the road and you've only yourself to blame.'
Mr Lieghio said it is likely there are many more people using their phones who are not caught, but that Gardaí are doing their best to tackle the issue.
'People are not listening so they have to be made to listen. How many more people have to die, suffer life-altering injuries, for the Government and the courts to start treating this as a crime?' Mr Lieghio asked.
In response to Mr O'Sullivan's question, Justice Minister Jim O'Callaghan said that roads policing capacity has increased since 2024, alongside measures to increase compliance.
This includes further deployment of unmarked Garda vehicles, as well as the installation of more static road safety cameras.
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RTÉ News
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Just after 6pm on Sunday 1 June in the centre of Carlow Town a 22-year-old man discharged a firearm inside a supermarket at the Fairgreen Shopping Centre. The man later died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was the sole fatality. While there was understandable panic in the shopping centre, it was amplified online by false claims, misinformation, and disinformation about the number of victims and nature of the incident. The only other person physically hurt was a young girl who sustained a minor leg injury while fleeing the scene. She was treated by ambulance personnel and later brought home by family members. In the hour after the incident prominent individuals online claimed falsely that a child had been shot, that the gunman was a foreign national, and that the incident was a terror attack with multiple casualties. Some of these claims first appeared on online accounts with small followings. Others were amplified by prominent anti-immigration campaigners, at least one of whom travelled to Carlow to film the scene. What followed was a fast-moving and often chaotic swirl of information, in which rumour outpaced fact, and where the Gardaí ultimately felt compelled to issue unusually detailed public statements to try to calm public concern and set the record straight. Here's how that narrative took hold, step by step. The first claims appear Gardaí received multiple reports of shots being fired in the Fairgreen Shopping Centre shortly after 6:15pm on Sunday evening. Armed Garda units responded to the scene, and members of the public were quickly assisted to leave the area. While some local media, including radio station KCLR 96FM, had begun reporting on the incident as early as 7:05pm — noting that Gardaí were dealing with an incident and that shots were believed to have been fired — the first official Garda statement didn't come until 7:27pm. 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Gardai would later specify that the gunman was a white Irish male, however the commenter inferred the person was non-white, saying "gunman shot dead. Have we been given his colour chart number yet?" By 7:13pm, others on X were alleging that a nine-year-old had been shot in the leg and that Gardaí had returned fire on an attacker, neither of which was true. One user posted around the same time claiming they'd heard "reports" of up to five injuries resulting from the shooting. Videos were soon circulating, in one filmed outside the shopping centre a voice could be heard saying "they f**king shot him down," adding to the confusion. At 7:20pm, Cork-based Derek Blighe the founder of the nationalist and immigration-focused 'Ireland First' party, weighed in on X. "Unconfirmed Reports of a mass shooting in Carlow," he wrote, "apparently 7 people including a child have been shot." In a video posted alongside the caption, Mr Blighe — who has been unsuccessful in several recent elections — speculated that the individual responsible had "been shot dead." His video also included a screengrab of a Facebook comment thread showing incorrect information about the incident, including that a nine-year-old had been shot. Mr Blighe commands a sizeable online following and regularly posts during high-profile incidents. Minute-by-minute analysis of posts on X containing the word 'Carlow' at the time shows a marked increase in activity following his comment. Gardaí issued the aforementioned first public statement providing the initial account of the incident shortly after. But the statement, that said there was "no further concern for public safety," did little to stem the spread of rumour. At 7:31pm, a user on X posted that: "rumours are a migrant went into the shopping center and started shooting." At 7:35pm, online outlet known for publishing hardline and often sensationalist content, posted to its near 70,000 followers that "Gardai appear to have shot an active shooter at a Carlow Shopping Centre." It followed up with a series of posts including one saying: "A 9-yr-old child has been shot during the crossfire." Traditional media sources began reporting on the incident soon after. Some local media had shared brief updates on social media earlier in the evening, but most outlets held off until Gardaí released their first official statement at 7:27pm. RTÉ News published its first online story at 7.40pm, reporting that a man had died and that a child had been injured. The report added that details of the incident remained "unclear" but that it appeared "a man fired a number of shots," and that it appeared the man had died as a result of "self-inflicted" gunshot wounds. Despite these emerging reports, false information continued to be shared elsewhere for hours. Shortly after at 8pm, Tommy Robinson, founder of the English Defence League, began amplifying false claims about the incident, saying "Multiple reports of a suspected terror attack in Carlow, Ireland. Gunman shot dead by Gardaí." Robinson, who was jailed in the UK for contempt of court in October after repeating false claims about a Syrian refugee, was released from prison last month. He has previously posted inflammatory claims related to events in Ireland, often amplifying false or unverified information. Despite the posts from Mr Blighe, and Robinson being inaccurate, they remain online more than a week after the incident. Influencers on the scene As speculation intensified online, Philip Dwyer, an unsuccessful candidate in the most recent general election and self-styled 'citizen journalist', travelled to Carlow to film outside the Fairgreen Shopping Centre. 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