A total of 257,000 penalty points were issued last year, a decrease of 9% on the previous year. More than three quarters of the total were for speeding.
The CSO's figures also reveal that nearly 128,000 sat driving tests last year, with an average pass rate of 51%.
Almost 985,000 cars underwent an NCT in 2001, with 93% passing after one or more tests.
The figures also show that 195 million passengers were carried on scheduled bus services last year, 37.4 million people travelled by rail and there were 29.1 million Luas users.