NEW: The Top 5 Penalty Point Offences

Learner Drivers, they're coming for you...

According to the Department of Transport’s latest statistics (June 2026), the top 5 penalty point offences over the last 12 months are:

·       Speeding

·       Holding a mobile phone

·       Unaccompanied learner driver

·       Driving without reasonable consideration

·       NCT.

At first glance it’s not a surprise to see Speeding in top spot.

At the moment there are 441,602 speeding offences recorded on Irish driver’s licences.

"Learner Driver Unaccompanied offences

have surged by 18.5% in one year.

Its by far the fastest growing offence"

This doesn’t mean that 441,602 drivers have penalty points due to speeding: many drivers have received points for speeding 2 or 3 times.

Every time they do, they appear 2 or 3 times in this list.  

But speeding is by far the biggest penalty point offence.

Holding a mobile phone accounts for 68,077 offences.

Learner drivers unaccompanied by a qualified driver are third highest at 28,014 offences.

Driving Without Reasonable Consideration is 4^th at 18,817 and having no NCT is fifth with 15,400.

Something unusual happens when you compare these figures with figures from twelve months ago. While each of the top 5 are increasing, the rate of increase over June 2025 is curious.

Speeding has increased by 3%

Mobile phone offences have increased by 11%

No NCT and Driving Without Reasonable Consideration have both increased by 13%.

But the big change is among learner drivers.

Learner Driver Unaccompanied offences have surged by 18.5% in one year.

Its by far the fastest growing offence.

The growth in penalty points is coming from roadside stops: mobile phones, learner drivers and NCT, but not speed.

The Gardai are now actively targeting learner drivers and because they have a lower threshold for points (7) compared to experienced drivers (12), they’re at risk of disqualification much faster than most imagine.