asked the Minister for Local Government whether he will provide in the near future for speed limits in built-up areas, particularly in the city and suburbs of Dublin.
33.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Speed Limits.
32.
asked the Minister for Local Government when he expects to be in a position to declare speed limits in the areas in the counties recommended for such limits by local authorities.
I propose with your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, to take Questions Nos. 32 and 33 together.
Before bringing into operation the provisions of the Road Traffic Act, 1961, regarding speed limits, it is necessary to consider the reports from local authorities and their technical committees as to the application of the speed limits to specific roads. Some of these reports are still outstanding. Those that have been received are being examined.
A considerable amount of work will be involved in scheduling accurately specific roads in the regulations. Furthermore, signs have to be prescribed, supplied and erected. While work on all this will take some time, I hope that the speed limits will be put into operation before the end of this year.
Can the Minister say if he is prepared to go ahead and deal with the local authorities from which he has received the necessary information without reference to those from which he has received no information, or is it necessary for the whole lot to come in before he can make a decision?
While it might not be absolutely necessary for the whole lot to be in it is desirable that all of them should be in and be examined before any decision is given in any part of the country. In other words, that it should be done simultaneously is the desirable feature of the matter, together with the fact that the actual preparing of the various regulations, the prescribing of the type of signs, the laying of orders for the manufacture of those signs and the ultimate time to erect those signs, is again something that should be dealt with in a global rather than a piecemeal fashion.
Can the Minister say why it is necessary to have further investigations regarding boundaries, as he stated, in view of the fact that the Garda authorities and the local authority engineers and officials have already gone into this procedure? Why is it necessary for Department officials to go over the same ground again before the Minister is able to make a final decision?
It is the Minister who makes the final decision——
I know it is.
——and in that event it is only reasonable that the Minister's advisers, where they think it necessary from the reports they have received, should satisfy themselves on points on which they may not be quite clear.
It looks like duplication of work.
It may be.