Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I do know a little bit about this. I know about road design, the speed for each road and all the rest of it, and I know we have a lot of very old, small rural roads. I would ask the Road Safety Authority to add something on the speed limits. A few years ago, the national lower speed limit was set at 80 km/h to achieve consistency and the local authorities rushed out and bought a load of 80 km/h road signs. The councillors are supposed to have discretion over this but, in fact, they will be told they do not have the expertise to have discretion. As the Chair said, it is getting to the point that they are told they do not have the expertise and that the road engineer is the one who will determine it. Yet, they know their area and its roads very well. They will know where there is a sports centre or a lot of people arriving on foot, and know that an 80 km/h speed limit is inappropriate in that kind of location. They may also have a knowledge of accidents, near misses and so on. However, they do not really have discretion and they end up having rows over a road not being safe. To have this idea of consistency as opposed to actually measuring things, such as the type of user in a particular area, is to look at it from the point of view of a driver as opposed to the point of view of cyclists, pedestrians and so on. I am not convinced that has been properly evaluated.