Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy is correct. The plan is that we have to enact the legislation to change the default speed limits. Once that is enacted, we will produce detailed guidance for every local authority then to do a speed limit review and the new guidance will inform local authorities on how to conduct a review and on the recommendations that evolve from it. Essentially, the present position is that, for example, with an 80 km/h limit on a local rural road, the chances of that being revised downwards in each instance is not occurring. The Deputy will know that from being in a rural area. The default position will be at 60 km/h and the local authority can revise it upwards where it is safe to do so. Essentially, it is a devolved function of local authorities to set the speed limits on our roads, and that will continue. There will be a central role for local authorities and we will engage through the Department and with others involved, including councillors, as the guidance is published.

Another issue before was that Meath might move in quarter one next year and then Tipperary two years after, so there was inconsistency and fragmentation. If you are moving between Meath and Fingal they are both at different stages of implementation. We are trying to synchronise that next year in order that local authorities move together and make it more consistent. We have referred to national secondary road limits going from 100 km/h to 80 km/h, but if there is a new national secondary road that has recently been upgraded and is assessed as being safe to have a limit set at 100 km/h because it is engineered to take that speed, that will be revised upwards to 100 km/h. Again, it is about revising something upwards where it is safe to do so rather than making the exception as a reduction. That is the change in the approach, which is starting at a safer baseline and then revising where it is correct to do so. That is how the speeding review will evolve.