asked the Minister for Local Government the total cost of the erection of speed limit signs for motorists in (a) Dublin city and county and (b) the remainder of the country.
10.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Speed Limit Signs.
9.
asked the Minister for Local Government what steps were taken, prior to the erection of speed limit signs under the Road Traffic Act, 1961, to ensure that such signs were placed in the most convenient, visible, and suitable locations; and whether he had consultations with local authorities and other bodies with regard to their location.
11.
asked the Minister for Local Government the number of complaints and criticisms received to date by local authorities and by his Department with regard to the location of speed limit signs.
12.
asked the Minister for Local Government whether, further to a statement on 1st May, 1963, to the executive committee of the Association of Municipal Authorities, he will give further details of the proposed investigations of the location of speed limit signs; the date when any alterations in the locations are likely to be put into effect; and the estimated cost of the investigations and of the alterations in the location of badly-placed signs.
With your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 9, 10, 11 and 12 together.
Final details of the cost of erection of speed limit signs throughout the country have not yet been submitted to my Department by the local authorities concerned but preliminary figures available indicate that the approximate cost will be £7,000 for Dublin city and county, including the borough of Dún Laoghaire, and £63,000 for the remainder of the country.
The positions of the signs were suggested by local technical committees consisting of local engineers and garda officers, whose reports were submitted to the local authorities in the first instance. Before the regulations were drafted, officers of my Department visited each site and were accompanied in each case by a local authority engineer. Their reports were the basis on which the regulations were framed. In general, they accepted the local committees' recommendations, but in some cases they suggested minor changes in the location of signs, chiefly to ensure that the signs would be visible to all road-users for a reasonable distance and that the signs would be placed in suitable positions without imposing a speed limit on unduly long stretches of rural roads. Extracts from the draft regulations which described the positions of the speed limit signs were sent to the local authority engineers for checking before the regulations were made.
I have no information as to whether any complaints or criticisms in regard to the location of speed limit signs have been received by local authorities. No such complaints or criticisms have been made to me. I have, however, received 22 requests that the application of the built-up area speed limit of 30 m.p.h. should be extended to places at present either unrestricted or subject to a speed limit of 40 m.p.h.
I have already indicated on a number of occasions that I have asked local authorities to arrange meetings of the local technical committees for their areas about the end of each year to review the roads which are subject to speed limits and to submit to me any recommendations which they may have for the amendment of the schedules to the regulations. As the first such review by the technical committees will not take place until the end of the present year, it is unlikely that any amendments will be made to the regulations until mid-1964. Any amendments that may be suggested will, of course, require to be investigated but it would not be possible to estimate the cost of such investigation until it is learned how many amendments will be suggested and whether it will be necessary to re-locate any of the existing signs or to provide additional signs.
If the technical committees recommended a change, would it be adopted before the end of this year?
It is unlikely that they will. The general advice is that they should meet about the end of the year. If they did meet for any reason and submitted a report, we would probably have it investigated immediately.