Old cars can be dismantled and recycled at no cost to the owner under law which came into force this January, 2007. The Waste Management (End-of-Life Vehicles) Regulations are new and they bring Ireland in line with an EU Directive, the End-of-Life Vehicle (ELV). In practice this means that carmakers are now wholly responsible for the cost and administration of dismantling and recycling the 120,000 or more vehicles that need to be scrapped in Ireland every year.

Gardai detected 175,513 speeding offences in 2006, an increase of 30,000 over 2005 figures. And despite the promotional activity to encourage people to wear seat-belts, the number of people caught with no belt increased to 26,107 from 18,084 the previous year, new Garda figures show.

Despite the Garda clamp-down on drink-driving, arrests of suspects have hit a record high. Gardai are dis-appointed with the latest statistics and do not put the increase in arrests down solely to more Garda activity, with increased checkpoints and surveillance. The statistics show that gardai arrested 487 motorists on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol between March 12 and 18, 2007. This is a record total compared to statistics for the same period last year, with only 406 for the corresponding period last year