GARDAÍ SAY THEY operated 63 per cent more mandatory alcohol checkpoints on Ireland’s roads last weekend than on the same weekend last year.

Provisional figures published by the force this evening say 1,426 mandatory checkpoints were operated between last Friday morning and Monday evening.

874 checkpoints were operated over the equivalent four-day period in 2012.

A total of 10,470 breath tests were carried out, an increase of 37 per cent on the 7,645 undertaken last year.

Officials said five people died on the roads over the weekend in four separate accidents, a slight reduction on the five accidents which claimed six lives last year.

There was a larger fall in the number of people who sustained serious injuries, however, with six people seriously injured in five separate incidents – down on the four incidents last year which left 11 people seriously injured.

2008 was the deadliest bank holiday weekend on the roads in the last five years, when nine people did in six different accidents, while a further ten were seriously injured in three more incidents.

Read: Almost 72% of Irish motorists believe garda presence on roads has reduced