Councillors 'very reluctantly' sign off on Cork speed limits

Claims that TII, which proposed the revised speed limits, has ignored road safety issues raised by county councillors

TII speed limit reviews, once endorsed, cannot be revisited by local authorities for five years, posing a dilemma for many Cork county councillors. Picture: Denis Minihane

Cork county councillors have “very reluctantly” agreed to sign off on new speed limit bylaws for main roads proposed by Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) even though they claim the authority has ignored glaring safety issues in many areas.

In an emotive debate, one councillor claimed her conscience would not allow her to sign off on the countywide alterations proposed by TII as she had consistently highlighted serious safety issues at Rafeen Junction, on the N28 Cork-Ringaskiddy road, and the transport authority had ignored it in the speed reduction measures it put forward for councillors to ratify.

“If I vote for this, am I allowing my family, friends, or constituents be killed [without a speed reduction there], what kind of a public representative would I be?” asked Independent councillor Marcia D’Alton.

Labour councillor Cathal Rasmussen, who regularly travels that road to go to work, said he had witnessed a very serious accident there recently. 

Fianna Fáil councillor Seamus McGrath said councillors had on numerous occasions asked TII to lower the speed limits coming into the junction, but their pleas had been ignored.

Mayor of County Cork, Independent councillor Danny Collins, said there are similar issues all over the county with TII not implementing requests for lower speed limits on national primary and secondary roads.

'We know where the dangers are' 

He and Fianna Fáil councillor Patrick Gerard Murphy cited cases in the Bantry area, with Mr Collins adding: “We’re the people on the ground who know where the dangers are.” 

Fianna Fáil councillor Joe Carroll said gardaí and locals had supported councillors’ calls for a speed reduction on part of a main road in the Skibbereen area, but TII had not responded to these calls for action.

TII speed limit reviews, once endorsed, cannot be revisited by local authorities for five years under current guidelines, and this posed a dilemma for many councillors.

A number of them initially proposed that if their requests were not taken into account they should not ratify the TII list presented to them.

However, Independent councillor Declan Hurley, who is chairman of the council’s roads and transport committee, said while he acknowledged the concerns of his colleagues he needed guidance on what would happen if they rejected TII’s requests.

Council chief executive Tim Lucey said that if rejected, the revised speed limits would not come into effect from July 1 and considering many of the proposals were lowering km/h limits, he would advise councillors to ratify them.

After much agonising, councillors agreed to adopt them. 

However, they also agreed to write to TII insisting that the five-year revision of limits be reduced to a two-year period with consultation taking place between the local authority and roads authority six months after the new limits are introduced.