Comment & Analysis: This website regularly debunks misinformation on transport issues, but the misinformation surrounding today’s speed limit changes has been one of the worst cases of a large part of the media getting things wrong with a mix of unclear and misleading reporting.
Let’s just be clear about this first, this is what has happened:
- Only the default limit for local rural roads has switched from 80km/h to 60k/h.
- Regional roads also have a default limit of 80km/h, but this is not affected, and there is no plan to reduce it.
- National primary roads and national secondary roads, which are generally 100km/h but are sometimes 80km/h, will also remain unchanged.
- While local rural roads amount to the majority of roads in Ireland, most of these are boreens and other roads where most people already travel at around or under 60km/h.
- There will still be a dense network of roads across the country where the limit in rural areas will be 80km/h, 100km/h or 120km/h. In other words, the rural sections of what is shown in the map below.
- In addition to what is mapped below, some councils have also implemented bylaws to keep a small number of local rural roads at their 80km/h limit.
- Changes to national secondary roads and urban roads are expected later this year. However, at this time, there is no set date for these changes, and there will likely be many exceptions.
“N17 not impacted in speed limit changes”
The craziness of misinformation has reached the point that it needed to be clarified by local medai in Sligo that the N17, a national primary route, is not impacted by the speed limit changes.
Some of the reporting in the buildup to the change was in error because, for example, of sloppiness or because journalists are under too much time pressure. In a small number of cases, the headlines and articles seem to be misleading because of the clickbait way they were written.
Many articles are not strictly factually incorrect but misleading in phrasing, or key facts are presented only later in articles where headlines or opening paragraphs are misleading. This is especially problematic when it is known that many people will only read headlines or the first few paragraphs.
The second group to blame is a (relatively small) number of councillors who spoke about the issue when they were clearly unaware of what was happening. Or they may know of one or two roads that they think should stay at 80km/h, but they are making a bigger fuss than is justified (like calling people in the Department of Transport Hitlers).
Again, a small number of politicians don’t care or will say anything to be populist.
In retrospect, some blame may also be aimed at the Department of Transport for not simplifying the message around the speed limit changes and possibly looking at not complicating matters by mentioning the details of changes expected later this year.
Was there really much misinformation?
Sadly, yes. A mix of national and local media has gotten the story wrong or presented it misleadingly.
A Virgin Media News Facebook post, which was posted on Tuesday and shared 144 times, claimed, “From Friday, 7 February, speed limits on Irish roads will be reduced. Rural road limits will drop from 80 to 60km/h, urban centre limits from 50 to 30km/h, and national secondary roads will see a reduction from 100 to 80km/h later in 2025. Get the latest tonight on #VMNews.”
This is totally misinformation. Not all 80km/h rural roads have changed today, and the other mentioned changes are not due to be implemented until later this year. These changes will also not be blanket changes, with a higher percentage of exceptions expected.
A video clip by Virgin Media News on TikTok — shared over 7,400 times — includes a reporter saying, “From next week, February 7th, we’ll see our rural roads at a speed limit of 60km/h. That’s to change from the 80km/h currently”.
This is again misinformation of the sort which has confused the public into thinking rural main roads are part of the changes. The default for regional roads is to stay at 80km/h and some national secondary routes which have an 80km/h limit for a number of years will stay at that limit.
At the time of writing and many hours after it was published this afternoon, a headline on the Irish Examiner’s website declared: “Reduced speed limits on national secondary and local roads from Friday“. The opening paragraph is muddled, but the second paragraph claims: “Going forward, the default speed limit on national secondary roads will be reduced from 100km/h to 80km/h”. This is verifiability untrue.
It is also misleading for that article to report: “On local roads, the limit will be reduced to 60km/h from 80km/h”. There are some exceptions where local roads will be kept to 80km/h. It is not a blanket change.
The article further claims: “Later this year, the speed limit in urban areas — including built-up areas, housing estates, and town centres — will be reduced from 50km/h to 30km/h.” This is also a misrepresentation of the nature of the planned 30km/h changes; there will be many exceptions for main roads in built-up areas.
Some media outlets focused on enforcement. “Speed limit change will be enforced even if signage is not yet changed” a headline on 96fm.ie read — but the article fails to directly quote any Garda spokesperson saying what the headline claims, and there have been court cases on this: speed limits cannot be enforced without signs being in place.
In an Independent.ie article this week, the headline reads, “New lower speed limits come into force this week as motorists warned of crackdown” and a bullet point under it reads “Default speed limit on secondary roads will be reduced from 100kmh to 80kmh”. It is only explained in the 7th paragraph that only the rural local roads will be changed this week, and there is no clarity about the exceptions for the other planned changes.
The Limerickleader.ie and other publications in the Iconic Media group, which owns 19 local newspapers, ran the headline “EXPLAINED: Ireland speed limits being cut with some rural roads going to 30km/h” and the standfirst “Speed limits on roads with a current speed limit of 80km/h will change to 60km/h from February 7, 2025”.
This is highly misleading; non-local rural roads with 80km/h limits have not changed, and there are no details of “rural roads going to 30km/h” and no bylaw changes which would allow for this.
Both the headline and standfirst are highly misleading. The second paragraph in the article clarifies that it’s rural local roads that are changing, but after such whoopers, it’s really not enough of a clarifying point with nothing explaining.
An article in Galway Beo included a highly misleading image of a dual carriageway — a type of road where there is no plan to change the default limit.
