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

With the measures being included in the Bill it would become possible to declare a road or part of a road to be a national managed road. Where a road or part of a road has been declared to be a national management road, TII will be empowered to set special speed limits on the road. Senators will recall that the law on speed limits prescribes default limits for different classes of road. It also allows the roads authority to vary these by what are called special speed limits. This system of allowing roads authorities options means they can apply limits that are appropriate to the particular characteristics of specific roads and stretches of road. This has raised the question of the status of by-laws made by local authorities on a road which then becomes a national managed road. The question is whether a local authority by-law, which has been made before the road became a national managed road remains in force unless and until TII changes it.

In order to ensure there is no ambiguity on this, amendment No. 45 will declare that a special speed limit set by a local authority for a road which later becomes a national managed road will remain in force until TII changes it. Amendment No. 44 is a consequential amendment to the text to accommodate amendment No. 45. The issue here is safety. If the local authority has determined that a particular road or a particular stretch of road requires a speed limit different from the default, we do not want to create a situation where that limit would be void on becoming a national managed road with the road returning to its default limit.