Reduced speed limits come in effect by end of November

New default speed limits which will see the speed limit on local roads reduced from 80kmh to 60kmh are due to come into effect by the end of November.

In September of last year, following a review of speed limits, Ministers Eamon Ryan and Jack Chambers announced new speed limits for national, regional and local roads. The legislation to pave the way for this was enacted in April 2024 and the first phase of the roll out concerns local roads.

A presentation was given to Trim Municipal District councillors at their September meeting which outlined that in line with the new legislation, speed limits on national primary roads would stay at 100kmh, while national secondary roads would reduce from 100kmh to 80kmh. Regional Roads will be 80kmh while local roads will go from 80kmh to 60kmh

The first phase of implementation of new default speed limits will focus on local roads which will see a reduction in the speed limit to 60kmh which is due to come into effect by the end of November. This will affect local primary, local secondary and local tertiary roads.

Councillors were told that variations to the default speed limits will be permitted through the setting of byelaws and that all existing variations will remain in place. For example outside schools or at approaches to junctions, if there is a speed limit of 50kmh, it will remain in place.