Many Irish motorists do not know what the speed limits are and a public information campaign should be delivered to address this, the national spokesman of the AA has said.
Mr Conor Faughnan also said the national road network was "peppered with eccentric speed limits and this needs to be addressed".
"It is my belief that Irish motorists do not know what the speed limits are. Anecdotally, if you were to ask a circle of friends at any point what the speed limits were most would not be able to tell you, so I think a national information campaign would be useful."
He said now was the ideal time to mount such a campaign, given that the penalty points system will first penalise speeding motorists.
"And then there are speed limits around the country which are just plain eccentric."
He said there were numerous examples where the speed limit in a rural village might be 30 miles per hour, "which is fine".
"But than you find that limit extends for 200 yards out either end of the village, which is ludicrous. So it can be difficult for even honest drivers, who are trying to keep within speed limits, to comply all the time."
Given that the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, planned to change road signage next year, with limits displayed in kilometres rather than miles per hour, he should use the opportunity to carry out a "national audit" of speed limits, said Mr Faughnan, "to iron out these difficulties".
He also criticised the quality of signs in many areas, which he said needed to be improved, with visibility a frequent issue.
"The Government wants motorists to take speed limits seriously, which we support, but the Government must be seen to take speed limits seriously also."
And just for the record, the speed limit is 70 m.p.h. or 112 k.p.h. on motorways and dual carriage ways; 60 m.p.h. or 96 k.p.h. on urban stretches and outside built-up areas and 30 m.p.h. or 48 k.p.h. in built-up areas.
