MARIA MAYNES explains the new speed limits which have come into force on some Irish roads, and asks where the debate was prior to the major new rules being passed.
What restrictions on the public are justified to achieve an unknown further reduction in road deaths, when the restrictions are certain and the benefits uncertain?
Not everybody, of course, obeys the speed limit. But in part, I would argue, this is because in Ireland speed limits are rarely – except in urban areas – connected to safety.
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This is a Government that sees its people as the biggest problem facing the country. It is a sentiment that the public should return, with interest.
Irish Green Party Transport Minister Eamon Ryan says “the science is clear” on lowering speed limits for motorists – even though a report presented to his Department last year found that lowering speed limits “would result in more deaths.”
Motorists are a powerful voting block in Ireland, and one that gets regularly abused by politicians
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