Road Traffic Act, 1933

Special speed limits.

48.—(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, the Minister may, after holding a public inquiry, by order make regulations prescribing in respect of any specified road or of all the roads in any specified area the speed which shall either at all times or during specified periods or on specified occasions be the special speed limit on such road or roads for all or any classes or class of vehicles and may so prescribe different speeds in respect of different classes of vehicles.

(2) The Minister shall not make regulations under this section save on the application of the Commissioner or on the application of the local authority within whose functional area is situate the road or the specified area to the roads in which such regulations relate and the Minister shall not revoke or amend any such regulation save after consultation with the Commissioner and such local authority.

(3) The Council charged with the maintenance of a road or part of a road to which regulations made by the Minister under this section relate shall erect and maintain signs to indicate the existence and nature of the special speed limits imposed by such regulations, and section 36 of the Local Government Act, 1925 (No. 5 of 1925), shall apply in relation to such signs in like manner as it applies in relation to the signs mentioned therein.

(4) Every speed limit imposed within any limits or place by regulation made under section 9 of the Motor Car Act, 1903 and in force immediately before the commencement of this Part of this Act shall continue in force after such commencement and be deemed for all purposes (including offences and penalties) to be a speed limit within the meaning of this section and the regulation by which such speed limit was imposed shall be capable of being revoked or amended as if it had been made under this section.

(5) In this Act, the expression “special speed limit” means a speed which is by virtue of regulations made by the Minister under this section a special speed limit in the area in relation to which the expression is used.

(6) For the purposes of this section—

(a) each of the following bodies shall be a local authority, that is to say, every council of a county borough, every council of a county, every council of an urban district, and the commissioners of every town having commissioners under the Towns Improvement (Ireland) Act, 1854 , and

(b) the functional area of the council of a county shall not include any urban district or any town having such commissioners as aforesaid in such county.