Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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As part of Action 6 of the Government’s Road Safety Strategy a review was undertaken to examine the framework for setting of speed limits in Ireland including specific consideration of the introduction of a 30km/h default speed limit in urban areas. The group was established in later 2021.

The review group, as part of its work carried out an assessment of the existing framework of speed limits including the current guidance document for the ‘Setting and Managing of Speed Limits in Ireland’. The group also looked at best practice internationally as well as carrying out a modelling analysis of potential options.

This review is complete and published with an implementation plan to be prepared to progress the recommendations of the review. As a priority the Guidelines for Managing Speed Limits in Ireland will be updated.

The review recommended no change in relation to Motorway and National Primary Road Default Speed Limits however it has recommended that the Default Speed Limit reduce for National Secondary Roads. This reduction is designed to support the application of existing guidelines in relation to National Secondary roads and a more consistent application of Speed Limits on the network.

For National Secondary Roads changes to the current underlying approach to the setting and the actual speed limits is expected to be limited with, as a result, limited change expected in journey times, however an improvement to road safety is expected.