Review of Dublin city centre speed limits

Proposals to delist O'Connell Street as a national primary road so Dublin City Council can reduce its speed limit from 50km/h to 30km/h are still being considered by the National Roads Authority.

As previously reported by The Irish Times, the council wants to cut speed limits to 30km/h on O'Connell Street and much of the city centre from Parnell Street to St Stephen's Green as part of a road safety scheme.

However, it cannot cut the limit on O'Connell Street because it is a national primary road, which is in the control of the NRA. The council last year applied to the NRA for the road to be delisted so it can be part of the 30km/h scheme.

A council spokesman said yesterday that the process is ongoing and no imminent change of the speed limits is expected.

"As the delisting process is at the discretion of the NRA, it is not possible at this juncture to confirm when the proposed routes will be delisted."

If the NRA does give its sanction to the delisting of the primary routes, new draft speed limit bylaws, necessary to make any change in speed limits, would be drafted by the council's traffic department.

These would then be submitted to the council's transportation strategic policy committee (SPC) prior to a public consultation process. Following public consultation, the bylaws would then be brought back before the SPC ahead of being submitted to a full meeting of the council for ratification.