‘Jake’s Law’ mum disappointed at speed limit ruling

A grieving mother who led a four-day Dáil protest over speed limits in housing estates says she is disappointed that Transport Minister Paschal Donohoe did not commit himself to a mandatory 20km/h in residential areas.

Roseanne Brennan’s six-year-old son Jake died in her arms after being knocked down by a car near his home in Lintown Grove, Kilkenny, last June.

Determined that her son’s name and spirit would live on, Roseanne founded Jake’s Legacy and began a campaign to have residential safety issues addressed.

Mr Donohoe said he accepted the principal of a Sinn Féin proposal for mandatory 20km/h limit in residential areas when he responded to the party’s private member’s Road Traffic (amendment) Bill in the Dáil on Tuesday.

However, while he would introduce the option of a 20km/h limit, imposing blanket speed limits was problematic and those best able to define a residential area were the local authorities and councillors.

“That is the challenge I face in delivering a mandatory definition of the of the implementation of a speed limit,” Mr Donohoe said.

Roseanne said implementing what had become known as Jake’s Law would cost far more than the €2m provided recently for local authorities to help them introduce 30km/h speed limits in housing estates.

“While the minister accepts there needs to be speed limits in housing estates he is still leaving it to county councils to exercise discretion in the matter. He is not going to impose Jake’s Law,” she said yesterday.

“It all comes down to money. If the Government makes it mandatory they will have to spend money on implementing the speed limits and they don’t want to do that.”

Roseanne, a mother of three, said of her campaign: “I am not just doing it for Jake, I am doing it for my other two children as well.”