In the coming weeks, Cabinet will be presented with plans, which would see limits reduced from 100 to 80 kilometres per hour on some national secondary roads.
Rural and local roads would drop from 80 to 60 kilometres per hour, while limits in residential areas, towns and cities would fall to 30.
The Road Safety Authority is among those to back the move.
Enterprise Minister Simon Coveney says there also needs to be an increase in enforcement in order to change driver behaviour
"Given the awful tragedy that we've seen, I think it's 127 people have been killed on our roads so far this year. it's a significant increase. This isn't some kind of blip. This is this is because road safety isn't on people's minds as much as it should be, when they're driving"
