Professor Denis Cusack:

I do not want to encourage people to override the speed limiter. The technology is there, but it is really about educating people. The other thing about speed limits, and I said it at the ministerial meeting, is that we have to make sure they are proportionate and that there is a buy-in. On the RSA figures, if I may steal some of its thunder, the surveys show that three quarters of drivers exceed the 50 km/h limit in those areas, and one third exceed the 100 km/h limit. It may be that they are driving at 105 km/h or 110 km/h, but nevertheless they are over they speed limit. Already, we do not have a buy-in. I would suggest we need to look very carefully at it. I agree with Deputy Danny Healy-Rae that just because the speed limit is 80 km/h does not mean that you have to travel at 80 km/h. Likewise, if we are going to introduce a speed limit of 80 km/h, it has to make sense for that road. If it comes into disrepute and people think it is ridiculous and the limit should be 100 km/h or vice versa, it will not work.

The other point relates to medical evidence. Somebody asked me a few days ago about the 30 km/h limit, if there is evidence that it works and whether it should be introduced in every city. Again, it should be restricted to areas where there is high housing density. A study from Edinburgh published in one of the medical journals recently showed it is effective. In fact, I think representatives of the Garda are going to Scotland. Some of its speed limiting is working. You do not need to be a doctor or an orthopaedic surgeon to know that if you are hit by a car at 50 km/h, your chances of survival are much less than when you are hit by a car at 30 km/h or 20 km/h. A lot of it is there, but it has to be evidence-based and proportionate, and it has to have public confidence and buy-in.

The message is also up to people. I have colleagues who work out in the national rehabilitation hospital on Rochestown Avenue. We may have to shock the young men that, and I say this very carefully, sometimes there is something almost worse than death and that is they may never walk again, play sports, or have a relationship with their boyfriend or girlfriend again because of the catastrophic life-shattering injuries sustained. Deputy O'Rourke mentioned deterrents. We have to took at this. This is why the campaigns over the years and Michael Roland, Sarah O'Connor, and Brian Farrell in the RSA have done a tremendous job getting that message across. Sometimes it has to be shocking. There is evidence that shows young people do not respond to being chastised, but sometimes a shocking message may be the way. In the end, it has to be carrot and stick. Let us use the technology sensibly and proportionately. Why wait until we have legislation?