To ask the Minister for Infrastructure whether consideration has been given to introduction of part time 20mph speed limit zone in the vicinity of Eglinton Primary School.

As Minister responsible for promoting and improving road safety, I want to work actively with partners to reduce death and serious injuries on our roads. I believe that reducing the maximum speed traffic can travel at on some of our roads, particularly those near schools, can help in this regard.

I am therefore delighted to have committed funding in this year’s capital budget towards introduction of part-time 20 mph speed limits at around 100 schools. These measures will increase driver awareness and achieve reductions in vehicle speeds outside and near these schools ensuring that parents, children and staff will be safer as they go to and from their schools on a daily basis.

I am determined that using the roads around all of our schools will be safer for everyone, and it is my intention that through future programmes many more schools will benefit from a part-time 20 mph speed limit on the roads outside their gates.

Given the restricted budgets for works of this nature, as well as the practicalities of delivery, it was necessary to limit the number of schools to 100 in this year’s programme. Unfortunately based on its assessment score Eglinton Primary School was not ranked as highly as other schools included within this year’s programme. However, I do intend to take forward a further tranche of part-time speed limits at schools and it will be considered for inclusion in future programmes.