Revealing that the number of drink-driving arrests in 2012 has considerably, vis-a-vis the 2007 figures, Garda statistics show that the number of people caught drinking and driving over the alcohol driving limit was around 8,750 till November-end this year, as compared to the full-year 2007 figures of 19,484 arrests.

According to the Garda figures, with the last five years witnessing an over 50 percent drop in the number of motorists found to be driving under the influence of alcohol, the figures pertaining to the drink-driving offences estimated to be recorded for the 2012 full year will probably hit a record low.

One of the key reasons leading to a fall in drink-driving offences over the five-year period - from between 2007 and 2012 November-end - is that additional Garda resources have been put into the detection of drink-driving cases. As a result, the number of checkpoints witnessed a 3 percent increase - from 64,550 to 66,336 - during the mentioned period.

About the fall in the number of drink-driving offences over the last five years, the Road Safety Authority's research manager Michael Brosnan said that the situation is apparently an upshot of the fact that people's attitudes to drink-driving have undergone a cultural shift.

However, Brosnan also pointed alongside that drink-driving still continued to be one of the three leading factors which cause road deaths; the other two being over-speeding and not wearing seat belts.