Road Traffic Act, 1994

PART VI

Regulation of Traffic

Regulations for general control of traffic and pedestrians.

35.—(1) The Minister may make regulations for the general regulation and control of traffic (including the parking of vehicles) and pedestrians in public places.

(2) Regulations under this section may, in particular and without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1), provide for all or any of the following matters:

(a) specifying rules for the use of roads by traffic and pedestrians;

(b) requiring traffic to proceed in a specified direction only or to proceed along a specified side of the roadway or, in the case of dual or multiple carriageways, along a specified carriageway;

(c) assigning different parts of the road to different traffic (including pedal cycles) and pedestrians;

(d) prohibiting or restricting traffic or specified traffic from using a specified road or specified parts of the road (including footways or parts of the road reserved for pedal cycles);

(e) specifying rights of priority of passage for traffic;

(f) specifying the courses to be taken by traffic at road junctions;

(g) regulating and controlling the stopping, reversing, turning and overtaking of vehicles;

(h) prohibiting or regulating and controlling the driving of mechanically propelled vehicles and pedal cycles in relation to animals or animal-drawn traffic;

(i) prohibiting or regulating and controlling the driving or leading of animals;

(j) regulating and controlling the conduct of pedestrians on roads and specifying the respective rights of priority of traffic and pedestrians on roads;

(k) specifying rules for the parking of vehicles in public places;

(l) specifying, or authorising specified road authorities by resolution to specify, the places in which vehicles may be parked either indefinitely or for any period not exceeding a specified period;

(m) specifying the places in which the parking of vehicles may be prohibited or restricted;

(n) prohibiting or restricting the loading or unloading of goods on, through or across any part of a road;

(o) requiring specified signals to be given by persons in charge of traffic to indicate their intentions;

(p) the control of traffic and pedestrians by members of the Garda Síochána;

(q) the control and regulation of traffic and pedestrians by means of traffic signs in relation to which regulations (including regulations as to the significance to be attached to those signs) are for the time being in force under section 95 (2) of the Principal Act;

(r) specifying rules for the speed of traffic in specified circumstances;

(s) exempting specified classes of vehicles from specified provisions of regulations under this section and effecting identification of exempted vehicles.

(3) Different regulations may be made under this section—

(a) in respect of different classes of traffic, and

(b) for different circumstances, different areas and different classes of roads.

(4) The making of a resolution pursuant to regulations under subsection (2) (l) shall be a reserved function.

(5) (a) A person who contravenes a regulation under this section shall be guilty of an offence.

(b) Where, in relation to the parking of a mechanically propelled vehicle, there is a contravention of a regulation under this section, each of the following persons shall be guilty of an offence—

(i) the registered owner of the vehicle,

(ii) if the vehicle is the subject of a hire-drive agreement on the occasion in question, the person to whom the vehicle is hired under the agreement, and

(iii) if the person who parked the vehicle is not its registered owner or the person to whom it is hired under a hire-drive agreement, the first-mentioned person.

(6) (a) Where a person charged with an offence under subsection (5) of this section is the registered owner of the vehicle concerned, it shall be a defence for him to show that the vehicle was being used on the occasion in question by another person and that—

(i) such use was unauthorised, or

(ii) the vehicle was on that occasion the subject of a hire-drive agreement.

(b) Where a person charged with an offence under subsection (5) of this section is a person to whom the vehicle concerned stood hired at the time of the commission of the offence, it shall be a defence for him to show that the vehicle was being used on the occasion in question by another person and that such use was unauthorised.