The Department of Transport has confirmed that the changeover will now be on January 20th, 2005, more than three months later than the date recommended by the working group on the review of speed limits.
... 29,000 signs have been delivered to county councils and are awaiting erection...
The Metric Changeover Board... "a vigorous multimedia campaign" which will begin immediately after Christmas...
Many new cars already have km/h-only speedometers. By January 1st, all new cars will have these...
Ford Ireland chairman and managing director Eddie Murphy said: "Nobody's going to quibble with the introduction of metric limits. It's long overdue and part of the European ideal. But I'm sure I speak for most people when I say the transition frightens me. We were set a deadline by the Department. We acted on it. The result is that our cars will be available in metric versions only in 2005. Now the Government needs to stick to its deadline. It has been na�ve in its dealings to date, betraying a lack of comprehension of lead-times, production complexities and so on..."
The Department is adamant there will be no further delays.
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/motoring/2004/1006/1096684862192.html
David King
Ezra Steinberg wrote:
I did a search of the Irish Times and came up with this result:
*100%* *Irish Times Article - 'Education' blamed for metric limit delay <http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/motoring/2004/1006/1096684862192.html>*
Daniel Attwood
The latest delay in changing the country's speed signs from miles to kilometres has been attributed to the need to educate motorists about the new signs - and the new limits. ...
*matched words: *metric *published: *06 Oct 2004
Unfortunately, I don't subscribe to the Times so I can't access the entire article. Has anyone seen this and can provide more info?
Ezra
