Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) has told Drogheda TD Fergus O’Dowd that lighting along the M1 has been switched off to achieve greater energy efficiency but that there have been no implications for road safety.

TIII was responding to Deputy O’Dowd who had contacted them after several motorists who use the m1 motorway voiced concerns on the lack of appropriate lighting, particularly at junctions 7, 8 and 9.

In their response TII said their strategy on revised route lighting reflects significant changes in route lighting design standards since 2007.

They say that these new design standards have identified a greatly reduced requirement for the ‘lit area’ and, by implication, a significant amount of surplus lighting along sections of motorways constructed pre-2007.

“A study of the collision rate at locations where lighting has been switched off has concluded that there has been no implication for road safety” they said.

“The collision rate for the three junctions referred to in your correspondence (Junctions 7 - 9 ) have either remained the same or have reduced since the last collision analysis on the national road network was carried out, prior to the lights being turned off. There was therefore no increase in collision rate at any of these locations.

“While the current Europe wide energy security concerns and rising energy costs have placed a sharper focus on energy consumption, the reduction in route lighting initiative arose from Ireland’s National Energy Efficiency Action Plan which was launched in 2009 and set out several objectives to improve Ireland’s energy efficiency by the year 2020” said TII’s Senior Regulatory & Administration Executive, Amy O’Shaughnessy.

“A national improvement target of 20% was set, with a higher target of energy efficiency improvement of 33% for the public sector. The Public Sector Energy Efficiency Strategy published in 2020 credits road lighting improvements as having played a significant role in the achievement of these targets.”