See all Motoring NewsFollowing a spate of serious, high-profile accidents on Irish roads in recent months, the Government has published a report which proposes significant changes to speed limits across the country, especially on rural roads — where a majority of the most serious crashes take place — and in town and city centres.
What new limits are being proposed?
The reports propose two major changes to Ireland’s speed limits. For the network of secondary, rural and local roads, which are generally currently covered by an 80km/h speed limit, that will fall to 60km/h, while those that have a 100km/h limit will fall to 80km/h. Meanwhile, the default limit in urban areas — “which include built up areas as well as housing estates and town centres” says the report — will be cut from 50km/h to 30km/h.
Will any other speed limits be changed?
Not at the moment. The report states that: “There are no proposed changes to the default speed limits on motorways, national primary roads or regional roads contained in the review.”
Will these new limits definitely go through?
It’s very likely that they will. There has been something of a national outcry in the face of some appalling deaths and injuries on our roads this year. In spite of road safety generally improving — deaths on the roads fell from 472 in 1997 to 137 in 2021 — this year has seen an unpleasant upward spike in deaths, with almost as many people killed on the road in 2023 so far as there were in all of 2021, and we’re not even into the dark, wet months of winter yet.
Will the new limits actually save lives?
According to the Government report, they will: “Reducing speed has been fundamentally proven to significantly reduce the risk of death or serious injury in road collisions. The World Health Organisation has estimated that a five per cent reduction in average speed could result in a 30 per cent reduction in fatal collisions. Furthermore, the evidence shows that 50 per cent of pedestrians struck by a vehicle travelling at 60km/h will be killed, compared to 29 per cent of pedestrians struck by a vehicle travelling at 50km/h and five per cent of pedestrians struck by a vehicle travelling at 30km/h.”
However, the evidence is not so clear cut. In 2018, the French government reduced the speed limits on country roads from 90km/h to 80km/h. The result? While deaths on the road did fall in 2020, by 2022 they were the same as they were in 2019 and a study by the national observatory for road safety (Observatoire national interministériel de la sécurité routière) found that across most of the areas where the speed limit was reduced, road death figures remained ‘stagnant.’ In many of the areas where the speed limit was reduced, it has since been raised back to 90km/h again.
Will there be more enforcement of speed limits?
There will, but it will rely on cameras rather than any expansion in the Garda Traffic Corps. Minister for Justice Helen McEntee has said that there has already been a doubling of investment in the privately-operated ‘GoSafe’ speed camera vans, and that there are plans afoot for average speed cameras — which measure your speed over a given distance, rather than just at one spot — to be rolled out to rural roads. Currently Ireland only has average speed cameras on a stretch of the M7 motorway and the Dublin Port Tunnel, areas in which Ms McEntee says there has been a “high level of compliance with speed limits.” Indeed, Ms McEntee suggested that if the roll out of extra speed cameras is successful, then there may actually be reductions in the numbers serving in the Garda Traffic Corps.
Speaking at the recent National Ploughing Championship, Ms McEntee said: “So, if you were to apply that to certain stretches of roads that we know are really dangerous, that are black spots, I really think it would make a difference. Whether it’s fixed cameras, average speed cameras, GoSafe vans, we need to use technology to work to reverse some of these trends.”
What about improving the roads?
Sadly, there seems to be no mention of actually making the roads on which we drive any safer, in spite of the vast majority of the recent spate of fatal accidents occurring on country roads. It’s telling that few fatal collisions occur on motorways, where the quality of the road itself, and the provision of crash barriers, is vastly better.
According to Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan, the entire focus at the moment is on speed and nothing else: “This report is being published at a critical time, when fatalities on Irish roads are increasing at an unacceptable rate and after a particularly painful period of time when we have lost too many young people and families who all set out on their journeys expecting to arrive safely. The devastation and loss are being felt right across the country and we have to take action to make our roads safer and more predictable for everyone who uses them. We committed in the Programme for Government to review and, where appropriate, reduce speed limits to address road safety issues and ensure greater compliance. The implementation of the recommendations in this report will contribute to making Irish roads safer for all road users.”
What happens next?
Next, these proposals will be brought to the cabinet for approval, and then new legislation will be put forward to the Dáil so that it can be voted into the statute books. After that, “detailed guidance for local authorities” will be drawn up — it’s Ireland’s local authorities that actually decide upon and create speed limits on our roads — and the new limits are expected to be in place starting in 2024 and carrying on through 2025.