Calls for speed limits to be reduced

A local councillor has asked that the council reduce speed limits on roads at schools in the county from 80kmph to 50kmph.

Fianna Fáil’s Aiden Fitzpatrick is looking for continuity across the board. He says there is a wide disparity at such locations throughout the county. He made the call at a time when the government is considering plans to drop the limit on local and rural roads from 80kmph to 60kmph and to 30kmph within towns, cities and residential areas. Roads on the fringes of urban areas are also set to be governed by 50kmph limit.

The changes are aimed at reducing deaths and serious injuries on Irish roads by 50% by 2030, and achieving Vision Zero by 2050.

The move was welcomed by Cllr Fitzpatrick when speaking at the December meeting of Cavan County Council, but he suggested the limits may need to be even stricter in some areas.

He set out that there is a “shared responsibility” between all road users to ensure no harm comes to any member of the public.

There were plenty of examples, he suggested, where schools are in the pathway of roads on which traffic is travelling too fast.

There are others where safety measures have been introduced to great effect.

These “safe zones”, he said, should be extended to areas with playgrounds, where the speed should be as low as 20kmph.

“If we think anything of our children and of their safety, I think the quicker we lower the speeds the better.”

Independent Shane P O’Reilly agreed with the “essence” of the motion, but said a “blanket reduction” was disproportionate.

He suggested “periodic” speed limits may, instead, be the way forward, with flashing lights erected to inform motorists as is the case in other parts of the country.

But Cllr O’Reilly said that much of the spotlight still shines heavily on “driver error and responsibility”.

The Mullagh man said people are “in a hurry to get everywhere” these days and that greater education of drivers and the consequences might prove fruitful.

Fianna Fáil’s John Paul Feeley seconded the motion, agreed with Cllr O’Reilly also.

“Good and responsible drivers are punished by the irresponsible actions of others,” he said, adding that the government had spent heavily in recent times in providing more speed camera vans, which often appear outside schools after hours. That, he said, had the impact of “bringing the system into disrepute”.

He agreed with periodic speed limits, as did Fine Gael’s T.P. O’Reilly who shared the opinion that “it really is all down to driver behaviour”.

He claimed there should be a more joined up approach to reward safe drivers.

Aontú’s Sarah O’Reilly reminded that there had in the past been “huge push back” when councillors sought to have speed limits reduced.

Responding, Director of Services for Roads, Paddy Connaughton, accepted that periodic speed zones had a role to play in certain and specific cases.

He said the speed review proposed in September put forward a number of “key proposals” and much of these would be addressed in the year ahead with an “implementation group” set up and changes being “rolled out nationally” during 2025.