Women in Republic of Ireland will now be fined for applying make-up while driving

It is officially a punishable offence

(Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Women in the Republic of Ireland will now be fined if they are caught applying make-up while driving.

With so many new driving laws being introduced it can be hard to keep up, but fear not because the police are here to make sure those all important rules don’t slip your mind.

Taking to Twitter, the Gardaí - the state police force of the Republic of Ireland - posted two images of cars that had been pulled over earlier that morning with a warning that doing your make-up while driving, or waiting for traffic to move, is a punishable offence.

Making an example of the two people they pulled over for doing just that, the tweet read, “Roses are red violets are blue, €80 (£71) fine making its way to you.

“Two drivers left heartbroken after being fined this morning for applying makeup whilst driving. Please drive responsibly.”

After being flooded with comments, the Gardaí addressed the two separate incidents by explaining that each were given the €80 (£71)fine as a result of driving without reasonable consideration for other road users.

They also added that one of the drivers was caught curling their eyelashes.

While it might seem obvious to many motorists that make-up application should not be done while on the move, it seems it’s not uncommon.

A previous study by women’s motor insurer Diamond found that around one fifth of female motorists confessed to touching up their mascara while driving, while three per cent admitted causing a collision when distracted by applying cosmetics.

The poll of 4,000 female drivers also found that young women, aged between 17 and 21, were the most likely to put on beauty products at the wheel and the most liable to crash their car as a result.

This compares to just six per cent of women aged 56 or older who were found to be the least likely to do it.