I’m not particularly against penalty points in principle. I just don’t think we need them, and certainly not in the form proposed. It’s only setting down another layer of bureaucracy on one already there that’s not being used.

And seriously, it is just political scare tactics, an attempt to mask political unwillingness to grasp real nettles. Plant more nettles instead, seems to be the policy.

We’ve all read the list of 60 or so offences for which every one of us getting behind the wheel could conceivably be forced off the road if we’re unlucky enough or careless enough to get nicked for just a few of them.

Thing is, there are substantial fines already in place for pretty well all the offences mentioned. From speeding right through to not wearing seatbelts to driving a car with faulty equipment.

Yet the only times we see people being pulled over and booked are for speeding, usually on the safest roads in the country. Or at the occasional snap checks for car tax and insurance.

Driving home tonight, for instance, I came across a myriad of cars with faulty lights. I was forced to stop on a roundabout because a clown insisted on driving onto it right in front of me. I was frustrated on three different occasions by trucks that broke the law by driving on the outside lane of a motorway. Two of them had half-obscured number plates, and the third didn’t have a rear plate at all.

Three out of every four cars that came towards me had their dazzling foglights on, though there wasn’t even a hint of fog about. Two out of every three cars that were behind me at different times also had their foglights on.

Twice at amber-going-to-red lights I stopped, and cars on my outside ploughed merrily through even after the red. On a roundabout controlled by lights, another car crossed in front of me to get off, because she (the only woman driver in the sequence to do wrong tonight, as far as I could see) had placed herself incorrectly on the junction. Another sharp brake job.

And I saw two ‘customised’ cars that broke the law - one with a half-sized number plate stuck on the outside of its rear bumper, the other with smoked glass on its front side windows.

Back to the trucks, and about half of all I came across on open roads were exceeding their 50mph speed limit significantly. You can be sure that a number of them had disabled speed limiters, disconnected tachographs, and a few drivers were probably so tired from excess driving time that they were potential dangers to all of us.

And I’m sure that somewhere in the many thousands of motormiles travelled on my particular route home tonight there were a significant number of car drivers with no driving licence, the wrong licence, no tax, and/or no insurance.

There were surely also a fair share of bald tyres, noisy exhausts and iffy brakes, notwithstanding the NCT.

All offences already on the books. All offences for which there are penalties already. All of which could conceivably have been dealt with properly, and severely where appropriate, with existing systems and procedures.

And a number of which, under the existing careless and dangerous driving categories, could have resulted in endorsements on licences. The ‘penalty points’ which have been in place for years and years.

If the garda were about and visible on the roads all the time, as they should be, the general driving populace would have been doing its thing better long ago. They’ve had the power to change motoring habits for yonks. They haven’t enforced the regulations they’ve had.

Penalty points have now been introduced. But given the above, why did we need them? And why should they make any difference to the way the garda work?

Yes, there COULD be a difference. Giving them penalty points to play with is simply the same as giving them guns just because they wouldn’t use their batons. Now if, for a change, they decide to use their weaponry, those of us on the other end are going to get much more badly hurt than was ever necessary.

Sorry, minister. You’re grandstanding. Politicking. Trying to make a quick name for yourself on the backs of the unfortunate RTA dead. Maybe even, God forgive the thought, trying to deflect attention from the difficulties faced by your gelded Celtic Tiger government. When what you should have done is simply order the garda to enforce the powers and regulations they already had.

And maybe have had a strong word in the ears of the various state agencies which haven’t been properly doing their job of bringing our roads infrastructure up to the safe standard we pay for and should have.

A pity. I used to think you had more in you.