The Road Safety Authority (RSA) has written to all local authorities for a report on inappropriate speed limits in their area as part of the authority's preparations for the roll-out of privatised cameras later this year.
Although not directly part of its remit, the RSA has decided it needs an accurate assessment of the level of inappropriate speed limits across the State before deciding on elements of a public awareness campaign it plans to begin to accompany the introduction of the new cameras.
Noel Brett, chief executive of the RSA, said he wrote to each county manager, the City and County Managers Association and the National Roads Authority last month "to ask them what were they doing to review the consistency of speed limits in their catchment area."
He told The Irish Times last night "the board wanted to get a feel for the consistency and appropriateness of speed limits across the country so we can plan our public awareness campaign for the additional speed cameras."
The issue had been highlighted during the public consultation for the new Road Safety Strategy which was run by the RSA last December, he said. "A lot of people were talking about the need to have speed limits that are consistent."
Mr Brett said he had received "a small number" of replies from councils and would be following up with all local authorities that have not yet responded.
Developing public support for increased speed enforcement is seen as crucial to the success of the policy. Unlike drink driving, where the majority of drivers support random breath testing, the Hibernian Motoring Report 2007 found a more ambivalent attitude to speeding enforcement by motorists.
Its surveys found just 35 per cent of motorists supported the use of speed cameras as a road safety mechanism, compared with 88 per cent who said they supported extra drink-driving enforcement.
"We know from the Hibernian report that significant levels of respondents just don't support the use of speed cameras so we have a tough job ahead. We can learn from other jurisdictions, for example the UK, where speed cameras haven't enjoyed public support."
The move comes as responsibility for the non-national road network is passing from the Department of the Environment to the Department of Transport.
Inappropriate speed limits have proved an intractable problem with the former minister for transport Martin Cullen sending three separate letters to each local authority about the issue over the last 18 months.
Mr Cullen admitted inappropriate speed limits was one of the most frustrating issues he had to deal with during his tenure because the "vast majority of councils had not done what was required."
Speaking to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Enterprise and Small Business before Christmas last year, Mr Cullen threatened to "name and shame" councils that had not completed a review of speed limits and remedied those that were inappropriate.
However, he subsequently pulled back from this stance and a spokeswoman for the Department said last night those councils that have not completed a review of speed limits in their area and remedied any anomalies were being given until the end of this year to do so.
AA public affairs manager Conor Faughnan said he hoped moving responsibility for non-national roads to the Department of Transport would see a vastly improved response from the local authorities on the issue.
"It is a rather strange country where a Minister for Transport cannot get local authorities to answer his letters, let alone follow his policies. The response was on the whole pitiful," said Faughnan.
Mr Faughnan added that the arrival of automated speed cameras later this year created a pressure for this "major problem" to be definitively and swiftly addressed.
"In the context of increased speed enforcement it is imperative local authorities correctly audit speed limits in their areas and change those that are inappropriate."
If a situation developed where speed limits were widely ignored as being unreflective of road conditions "ultimately that could compromise the entire road safety strategy," he said.
Mr Faughnan said inappropriate or idiosyncratically applied speed limits, or leaving temporary speed limit signs in place long after roadworks were complete could result in motorists disregarding speed limits.
"There are countless examples of boreens with the 80km/h national speed limit because the council involved has never specified differently. There are also major roads where the local authority has artificially reduced the speed limit; in some cases indefensibly," said Faughnan.
