Opportunity for Meath County Council to review speed limits – Butler

Fine Gael Meath West TD, Ray Butler has called for a full review of speed limits currently in place across County Meath. Deputy Butler was speaking today (Thursday), on foot of the launch of a new document entitled ‘Guidelines for Setting and Managing Speed Limits’, which has been produced by the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Paschal Donohoe TD.

“The new guidelines are aimed at those charged with responsibility for speed limits across the country, including the local authorities, so this is the perfect opportunity for Local Authority engineers to audit the speed limits currently in operation in Meath.

“It is likely that some changes need to be made – either increasing the speed limit on quieter roads in good condition, or reducing it to increase safety on poorer quality roads. We need to ensure that greater consistency is applied where speed limits are concerned. It is also recommended that speed reviews be carried out every five years which is appropriate given our roads are constantly being upgraded and the speed limits may need to be changed to reflect that.

“The guidelines address a number of areas and introduce new road signage to deal with speed limits in rural areas on minor local roads. They also encourage the implementation of new urban ‘Slow Zones’ in residential areas to reduce the speed limit to 30 km/h.

“The guidelines are also relevant to An Garda Síochána, who must be consulted in relation to any proposed bye-law applying a special speed limit; the National Roads Authority, which must consent to a Special Speed Limit on a National Road or motorway and to other interested parties such as the Road Safety Authority, the general public and motoring organisations.

“Nobody knows our local roads as well as Meath County Council Engineers and I would urge the commencement of a review of Meath speed limits at the earliest opportunity.”