Speed limits legality may be in doubt

Dublin City Council among the authorities that have not yet formally adopted special speed limits in their area

Speed limits in place on some of the State's major roads may not be operating in accordance with the law, it has emerged.

A technicality raised at Bray District Court has revealed that special speed limit areas, such as 60 km/h limits on national routes, must be imposed by a vote of the local county or city council - yet many have not yet done so.

A spokesman for Dublin City Council confirmed this week that no special areas had been voted on by the council. This calls into question the limit imposed at Donnybrook which is a 60km/h limit. He added that the situation "would be looked at" when key personnel return from leave.

The city council controls the N11 out as far as Belfield where it becomes the responsibility of Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council. That council's director of transportation, Eamonn O'Hare, was at meetings and unavailable to comment early this week.

Cork City Council and Fingal County Council each said they had designated no special areas and the speed limits applied were in line with the directive of January 2004.

Legal sources told The Irish Times that the legality of the measure would depend on a case by case examination of the local authorities involved.

But they added: "You can be certain many of the signs out there have no legal backing whatsoever. "It would be worthwhile for a motorist accused of speeding to check the local authority records."

Questions about the legality of the speed limit on the N11 through Kilmacanogue, Co Wicklow, were raised in Bray District Court last week, where District Court judge Murrough Connellan heard an argument that there was a significant 19 month delay between the adoption of a special speed limit area, and its ratification by a vote of the elected members.

Judge Connellan struck out a total of 86 such cases after hearing legal argument from local solicitor Brian McLoughlin. Mr McLoughlin later told The Irish Times he would be surprised if the argument did not arise in district courts across the State.

The default system of limits, which was introduced in January 2004, provides for specific limits on designated roads. Where these limits are varied they must be approved by a vote of the local authority.

The National Safety Council and the Department of Transport confirmed this week that such a vote was necessary to make the special speed limits enforcable, opening the way for thousands of motorists to scrutinise the making of limits in their local authorities, and apply to have their penalty points lifted if all is not in order.

The difficulty goes back to the introduction of metric speed limits on January 20th, 2004. From that date speed limits were changed by ministerial order and councils did not have to vote to give them legal effect.

However the legal measure introducing the new kilometre limits also allowed councils the opportunity to create special areas where speed limits could be lowered or raised.

The intention was to provide for lower speed limits at dangerous or potentially dangerous locations such as difficult bends or outside schools.

It was also designed to allow councils to raise the limits on certain former national routes where a bypass had led to the former national road being downgraded.

At Kilmacanogue Wicklow County Council decided to reduce the speed limit on a stretch of the N11 through the village, from the usual 100km/h for such dual carriageways, to 60km/h.

The decision was taken in April 2004 but it was not ratified until November 2005, the District Court was told. As a result the 86 cases who were before the court had their cases struck out. Now it has emerged that many other councils across the State have not yet adopted a special speed limit regime including Dublin City, Fingal and Cork.

Where there are no special limits adopted a default system arises: Rural national roads are set at 100km/h. Rural regional or local roads have a default limit of 80km/h.

For a national road - such as the N11 through Donnybrook and many of the national approach roads to regional cities - a limit of 100km/h would normally apply. However the city or county council may impose changes, but only by vote of its members.