Officials handed out over 8 million traffic fines in 2021, with speeding accounting for by far the bulk of the tickets, the public prosecution department said on Friday.

The increase of 320,000 fines on the 2020 total was due to more people being on the roads last year, the second year of the coronavirus pandemic, the department said.

Some 6.6 million people were fined for speeding, almost half of whom were caught by a speed camera.

Almost 800,000 fines were handed out to drivers with a foreign car number plate, but fewer people from the UK were fined because cross border enforcement systems no longer apply because of Brexit.