“There are an enormous amount of people with very bad habits on the road. This division has one of the highest rates of drink driving detections in the country,” he revealed.

“I see people driving right up the back of other motorists. Behaviour like that has got to be stopped. I have asked for more Go Safe and Gatso [speed trap vans] to be allocated. We see the fallout for families after road traffic collisions and it is horrendous. The victim’s family have to deal with it for the rest of their lives.”

His comments followed a presentation by Inspector Kevin Gavigan, the Divisional Traffic Inspector, for the area. He told the members that, in 2016, four people lost their lives on Cavan roads - two in Virginia, one in Cootehill and one in Ballyjamesduff.

A well as informing the JPC of the statistics compiled by the division, the inspector also apprised the members of how the figures were used. Insp Gavigan explained to the meeting that planning by the Road Safety Authority (RSA) and Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) was based on statistics compiled by the local gardaí.

He said the data compiled by the Gardaí fed into a number of areas, for example, officers inform local authorities about overgrown hedges and road signs that are dirty or damaged.

