Camera advocates and insurance companies argue that the lucrative business of assessing points against licenses for camera violations results in more careful driving. A new survey finds a majority of drivers don't allow insurance points to affect their driving. Moreover, despite speed camera enforcement, the fatality rate on Irish roads is on the rise.

Key Statistic:
While 98% of drivers interviewed were aware of the system, only 42% were now driving more carefully compared with 54% at the same time last year.

Eddie Shaw, National Safety Council chairman, said when penalty points came in, in a remarkable four-month period between November 2002 and February 2003, the average monthly road death figure fell to 20.

That had since risen to above 30, and deaths, as the year draws to an end, are ahead of last year's toll.