Men get a lot more penalty points than women...
Over the past ten years, female motorists in Ireland received half the number of penalty points of their male counterparts, figures have shown.
This trend continued through the first four months of 2020 with CSO figures showing men receiving a total of 34,431 points from January to April, and women receiving 16,587 in the same period.
Newly launched online insurer MissQuote.ie said the figures show that women are safer than men when it comes to driving.
“I think it’s fair to say that these figures show that women are more cautious and compliant on our roads," Deirdre McCarthy of MissQuote.ie said.
"Year on year men continue to ‘outperform’ women when it comes to incurring penalty points.
"An analysis of the figures over a decade illustrates that women drivers in Ireland have received a total of 669,157 points, while men have been hit with a whopping 1,217,346 – or 88% more.”
However, McCarthy said it cannot simply be put down to representation as female drivers represent 47% of the 2,907,192 road users in Ireland.
The top two reasons for penalty points for both male and female drivers is speeding and using a mobile phone while driving.
"Whether you’re male or female, employing safe driving behaviour on our roads is absolutely crucial, and incurring penalty points will hit you financially when it comes to renewing your car insurance policy," McCarthy said.
Depending on the insurer, points could typically cost you up to €250 extra in premiums, while other insurers simply won’t quote for drivers who have more than a certain number of points. Motorists are rewarded for good driving behaviour by the way of lower premiums for No Claim Bonus discounts and not having penalty points”.
