Alan Farrell (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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Question 40: To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will request that local authorities carry out a national review of speed limits on all national primary and secondary roads. [33233/11]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Road Traffic Act 2004 establishes default speed limits that apply to defined categories of roads and which can only be changed by county and city councils through the making of special speed limit bye-laws. Section 9 of the 2004 Act sets out the range of special speed limits that may be applied by local authorities through bye-laws. In accordance with Actions identified in the Road Safety Strategy 2007 - 2012, my Department issued guidelines on speed limits in January of this year to all local authorities. The onus is on local authorities to take these guidelines into account in relation to the speed limits to be set for all roads in their area of responsibility.

The purpose of these guidelines is to provide advice and guidance in relation to the making of speed limit bye-laws by county and city councils for the purpose of applying special speed limits. After taking the guidelines into account it is considered best practice for local authority officials to advise the elected members of their respective councils on what a suitable speed limit regime should be for different roads in their areas of responsibility. For new roads the local authority will have the relevant information on the speed for which the road was designed. As part of a Direction given in January 2011, all local authorities were requested to undertake an assessment of special speed limits in their functional areas and the results of that assessment are expected to be available to my Department shortly.