Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 28 May 2025
100. Deputy Paul Nicholas Gogarty asked the Minister for Transport when the last urban design road manual for urban roads and streets was issued; whether there are any plans to update; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27951/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Design Manual for Urban Roads and Streets (DMURS) was jointly launched by the then Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport and the Minister for Housing and Planning in 2013. A revision to DMURS, which was issued in August 2019, was overseen by a Steering Committee that included representatives from Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government (DHPLG), Department of Transport (DoT), National Transport Authority NTA , Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), National Disability Authority (NDA) and professional stakeholders.
A number of individual meetings were also held with and further correspondence received from the NDA prior to the issue of the revised document. Based on these interactions with the NDA several amendments were made to DMURS with regard to the use of materials, kerb heights, use of zebra crossings and references to ‘Building for Everyone, A Universal Design Approach’ published by the Centre for Excellence in Universal Design.
The improvement and maintenance of regional and local roads is the statutory responsibility of each local authority, in accordance with the provisions of Section 13 of the Roads Act 1993. Works on those roads are funded from Councils' own resources supplemented by State road grants
Arising from the arrangements in place in relation to Local Property Tax receipts, the four Dublin Councils are self-funding for regional and local roads under the main road grant categories. Accordingly, these Councils do not feature in most of the grant programmes but are eligible for certain grants such as the training, speed limit signage and road condition survey grants and may apply for monies under the Strategic Grant programme.
It is the responsibility of the local authority to ensure that DMURS is applied in the design of all urban road schemes, while the Department of Transport have an oversight role on projects part or fully funded by the Department of Transport.
With regard to future reviews and updates, DMURS has always been viewed as a ‘live’ document, and the website (www.dmurs.ie) was developed to provide an accessible resource for all updates and supplementary material (including advice notes) along with links to key publications and case study material. In this context a working group, consisting of staff from various local authorities together with both Departments, which was formed in 2010 to produce DMURS still meet periodically and has prepared a number of training courses, updates to the document and other supplementary material. The latest updates were issued in July 2023 and referred to Urban Drainage and Junction Tightening, details may be found at www.dmurs.ie/supplementary-material.
