Plans revealed to cut speed limits by 20% in bid to reduce road deaths

PLANS are being finalised to reduce speed limits on the majority of roads across the country, it has been revealed.

It's understood the proposal, details of which have been widely reported this Wednesday, is in response to the 25% increase in road deaths so far this year.

Earlier this week, the Minister for Justice Helen McEntee announced she had allocated an additional €1.2m to fund almost 6,000 hours of speed-detection activities between now and December.

Now, it has emerged that the Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Jack Chambers, is working on a radical review of speed limits that will soon be submitted to the Government for consideration.

If implemented, the plan could see a maximum speed limit of 80km/h being implemented on national secondary roads instead of the current 100km/h.

The limit on local and rural roads would drop from 80km/h to 60km/h while there would be a limit of 30km/h in cities, towns and residential areas.

Minister McEntee and Mr Chambers have already met to discuss the plans which is being progressed by department officials.