National Secondary speed limit change could cause accidents, says Councillor

A NORTH Tipp Councillor recently criticised the proposed speed limit change for National Secondary Roads, pointing out that it could in fact cause, not reduce, traffic accidents.
Later in 2025, the speed limit in some urban locations called “urban cores”, which include built-up areas, housing estates and town centres, will go down to 30kph. The speed limit on national secondary roads will reduce from 100km/h to 80km/h.
Cllr Joe Hannigan told the February meeting of Nenagh Municipal District that while the various speed limit changes make sense for a lot of the road network, they don't make sense for a number of national secondary roads that he is familiar with in the Midlands.
“Changing the national secondaries from 100kph to 80kph often doesn't make sense. I am thinking of roads such as the old N7 from Nenagh to Limerick or the N52 from Birr to Tullamore. These are good roads on which many drivers will find it difficult to maintain a speed of 80kph. Do the local authorities have any say in these instances? Because they don't make sense. In fact, sometimes driver frustration could cause more accidents because they would be making more overtaking manoeuvres, sometimes at inappropriate points in the road. Safety is of course very important but common sense should also apply.”
Cllr John Carroll agreed. “The residents in the Ballywilliam area south of Nenagh in the old N7 (now R445) area are very worried about reducing the speed limit from 100kph to 80kph because they believe it will lead to an increase in dangerous overtaking. In a letter written to the Council they point out that the road has a good safety record but that could change because of the new speed limit.”
During another Municipal District meeting recently, Birr Municipal District, Cllr Peter Ormond, Cathaoirleach, told the meeting that he and the other councillors had received a lot of phone calls from members of the public concerned about the new speed limits.
Cllr Hughie Egan said there are a number of speed limit anomalies in the District. “For example, when you are leaving Ballinahown, heading towards Clonmacnoise it is 60kph, but nearing Clonmacnoise the road is 80kph. What this means is that the best part of the road is 60kph and the worst part is 80kph.” The acting Area Engineer Pat Dermody replied that in that particular instance the Local (60kph) road is better than the Regional (80kph) road.
The entirety of the Rural Road network now has a new speed limit of 60kph as compared to the previous speed limit of 80kph. The change became effective on February 7th 2025 last, after the Statutory Instruction to implement Section 7 in the Road Traffic Act 2024 which legalised the reduction in the default speed on rural local roads on February 7th 2025, was signed by the Minister of Transport on November 6th 2024.
Pat Dermody told the recent Birr MD meeting that during the end of January, beginning of February, the Council's crews installed or replaced 650 signs, and erected 220 new poles in the MD (South Offaly) area. During the recent meeting of Offaly County Council the Chief Executive Anna Marie Delaney told the Councillors that 672 new poles had been installed throughout Offaly and 1,292 new speed limit signs had been erected.