TÁNAISTE MICHEÁL MARTIN has said that proposed changes to speed limits across the country should be accompanied with a fresh look at the relationship between illegal drug use and road accidents. 

Published today, the Government’s Speed Limit Review has proposed a radical overhaul of speed limits in the country, with a limit of 30 km/h recommended for many roads across Ireland.

The speed limit of 30 km/h will apply to all urban centres, residential roads, and anywhere with a lot of pedestrians or cyclists. In practice, this will include many parts of Dublin as well as town and city centres across the country. 

There would be exceptions for national, regional, arterial, and key public transport routes, where it’s recommended the speed limit will be 50 km/h.

Speaking to reporters in Dublin today, Martin said the Government will be accepting the recommendations of the review – which includes a rollout of more speed cameras and greater enforcement of speed limits via penalties.

“Without question, enforcement is going to be key,” the Tánaiste said.

He added that the Government will also be looking at the impact of drugs more broadly in relation to road fatalities.

He said currently there is an anomaly in the “mandatory nature of checking for drugs as opposed to checking for alcohol”. 

As it stands, alcohol testing is mandatory where a Garda has a suspicion that the driver is under the influence or at the scene of a crash where someone has been injured.

“More broadly, there is evidence emerging of increased drug taking, and perhaps the need for legislation there in respect of the mandatory nature of checking for drugs, as opposed to checking for alcohol so there seems to be an anomaly there in respect of that,” Martin said. 

Commenting on the publication of today’s report, Transport Minister Eamon Ryan said it comes at a time when fatalities on Irish roads are increasing at an “unacceptable rate”. 

He added: “and after a particularly painful period of time when we have lost too many young people and families who all set out on their journeys expecting to arrive safely.”

“The devastation and loss is being felt right across the country and we have to take action to make our roads safer and more predictable for everyone who uses them.

“The implementation of the recommendations in this report will contribute to making Irish roads safer for all road users,” Minister Ryan said. 

Adding to this, Minister of State at the Department of Transport Jack Chambers said there is “no doubt” that speeding is a significant contributing factor to many collisions. 

He added that the measures set out in the review need to be part of a range of initiatives to improve road safety and said he has met with Justice Minister Helen McEntee to discuss enforcement action on Irish roads.

“We will be ending the anomaly in our penalty points system and we’re expanding the GoSafe contract. I am also working with the Road Safety Authority so we effectively target the right cohort with our communications campaigns,” Chambers said.

Speaking at the Social Democrats think-in in Dublin today, the party’s leader Holly Cairns said the party would support legislation to reduce speed limits nationally.

“Yes, it will depend on the precise legislation. Crucially, we need to reduce the number of road deaths and that is the most important part of this,” she said.

Cairns added that blanket speed limits for areas can cause problems and gave the example of some rural roads that have existing speed limits of 80 km/h where it would not actually be possible to go that fast.

“So I think introducing speed limits in areas where it’s not going to be enforced in any way – that won’t actually have the impact that we need it to have,” she said.

“When that legislation comes out, we’ll examine it and see where the fatalities happening, what are the exact causes of it, and address the speed limits in those areas. That would be the best way,” Cairns added.

 As part of today’s recommendations published by the Department of Transport, certain ‘transitional’ routes would have limits of 60 km/h, while higher limits will still apply on motorways, some dual carriageways and other main routes. 

In rural areas, the report says default speed limits should remain as they currently are on most rural roads – but drop to 80 km/h on national secondary roads, where the limit is currently 100 km/h.

On local roads, the limit would drop from 80 km/h to 60 km/h on many routes.