Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Local authorities are the statutory road authorities responsible for the maintenance and improvement of regional and local roads, together with traffic management, within their functional area. My Department provides grant assistance to local authorities under the regional and local road grant programme for a range of targeted programmes, including the safety improvement programme. Applications are sought each year from local authorities under this programme for consideration for funding in the subsequent year. In this context, funding can be sought for traffic calming measures. When making an application, councils are asked to submit schemes in order of priority. I understand that Louth County Council has included traffic calming measures at Bellurgan National School in its 2023 safety improvement programme application. The 2023 allocations will be decided following consideration of councils' applications by the Department and the allocations will be notified to councils as part of the general grant allocation process early next year.

As regards speed limits, the Road Traffic Act 2004 sets out default speed limits for the road network. Local authorities have the discretion to decide on varying these limits through special speed limit by-laws for roads within their administrative area. The making of such by-laws is a reserved function of the elected members of the council. Section 9 of the Road Traffic Act 2004, amended by section 86 of the Road Traffic Act 2010, sets out the range of special speed limits that may be applied through by-laws. To assist local authorities in the application of special speed limits, my Department's Guidelines for Setting and Managing Speed Limits in Ireland is available on . This applies to all public roads and provides guidelines to local authorities, as the roads authorities in their administrative areas, on how to decide appropriate speed limits. In addition, I launched a speed limit appeals process in December 2021 that allows members of the public or interested parties to appeal an existing speed limit to the relevant road authority, with an option to escalate the appeal to a regional panel, should the applicant be dissatisfied with the road authority's decision. Further information on this process can be obtained on .

See this speech in context