‘The price of safety’ - Thousands of motorists caught speeding on ‘dangerous’ Carlow road

Thousands of motorists were caught speeding on a “dangerous” road in County Carlow last year, a council meeting has heard.

Independent Ireland councillor John Cassin raised the issue of the N80 at the March plenary meeting of Carlow County Council.

Cllr Cassin asked when a review would be conducted on the impact of reducing the speed limit on the road from 100km/h to 80km/h.

He stated: “When will we get the review of the N80? I appreciate we said here in January we were going to wait and I understand.

“I suppose in the sense of how many people have received fines? What has been the reduction in crashes, the impact of the crashes?”

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Cllr Cassin continued by highlighting the issues that are still being experienced by motorists on the road.

“I have had several people contact me and I’ve also drove it several times myself where people are being passed out at 80km/h.

“People are being flashed. It’s nearly making it worse and more dangerous. I appreciate you can only do so much but it’s got to the stage where what can we do.”

He concluded by saying that despite talks of a bypass in the future, the council has to do something in the meantime.

In response to Cllr Cassin, Coilín O'Reilly, Chief Executive of Carlow County Council, said that the review would be conducted in May.

Mr O’Reilly disputed whether the road has become more dangerous and detailed his enquiries with the Carlow Fire Service.

He continued: “The fire service hadn’t been called out to any accident on the N80 in the two months from December through to our February meeting.

“That’s not saying there’s no crashes but the level of impact due to the lesser speed isn’t as serious.

“Also, I think one of the issues with the N80 is there’s an awful lot of turning motions off it and onto it and turning lanes and stuff like that.

“So the impact from those, people have more breaking time at 80km/h, so that is quite interesting.”

On the subject of speeding fines, Fine Gael councillor Brian O’Donoghue told the meeting that over 4,200 fixed penalty notices were issued for offences on the N80 between May and December 2025.

In response to this, Mr O’Reilly said: “While 4000 sounds a lot, we have to remember there’s 4.2 million cars on that road every year.

“So 4000 in six months is a very small percentage of cars on the road. But I thought the accident stat was the most interesting, that they hadn’t been called out in that period of time.”

Meanwhile, Fine Gael councillor Fergal Browne disputed whether people should be getting fined for going slightly over the speed limit.

Cllr Browne said: Just the fines on the N80, certainly we are getting a lot of reps on it but if the stats are correct, it means one in 1000 people get a fine on that road which would be quite good.

“It’s not a bad rate but I suppose what is a bit of a mercenary is the fact you could be going 83km/h and you can get fined for going over 80.

“I know before there was always a myth that you could go 10 per cent over the limit but that obviously isn’t the case anymore. It’s literally 80 full stop.”

In response, Mr O’Reilly said that that was just the way speed limits work. He stated: “With regard to the speed limits, the speed limit is the speed limit, Cllr Browne.

“I think the 10 per cent you’re referring to is sometimes what the guards call discretion and if a guard stops you and you’re within 10 per cent, they might let you away with a warning.

“Less so, now. That speed camera is calibrated regularly, it’s 100 per cent accurate and if you are [doing] 81 in the 80, you will get a speeding ticket.

“It’s the way it works. That’s the price of safety I would say,” he concluded.

Carlow County Council voted to reduce the speed limit on the N80 from 100km/h to 80km/h in November of last year. The change came into effect on December 18.

The ‘special speed limit’ on national secondary roads in Carlow was introduced following a consultation with An Garda Síochana and Transport Infrastructure Ireland.

In doing so, Carlow County Council exercised its powers conferred on it by Section 9 of the Road Traffic Act, 2004.