Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank TII for this very informative report. I would really like to see TII doing more work of this nature so we can make really well-informed decisions as to how we could have a more sustainable and safer road network in the future. I thank TII for doing this really important work.

I have some quick questions and observations. The report makes the case that by reducing speed limit limits on our national motorway network, we would run the risk of having at least 35 additional fatalities each year because, ultimately, we would drive people off that network and onto the secondary, regional and local road networks. Are we to assume that in doing so and running the risk of those fatalities, that those people leaving the motorway network would, by definition, be breaking the speed limit on those other roads? As the Chairman stated, if one was to reduce the speed limit on a national network, perhaps by bringing it down to 110 km/h, one will have to have a cascading reduction across the entire road network. I travel quite a lot on the M6 from Dublin to Galway. It does not make sense that somebody who decides, for example, to depart the M6, and who observes the speed limit on what was the old N6, would still make a time gain between Dublin and Galway. It would not be physically possible. Are we to assume that those additional fatalities that occur off the national motorway network happen, in the main, because people are breaking the speed limit on those more minor roads? That is my first question.