Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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340. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the way his Department has employed the Design Manual for Urban Roads and Streets; how ongoing and future projects align with these standards; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11965/25]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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The purpose of the Design Manual for Urban Roads and Streets (DMURs) is to address street designs within urban areas and ensure that the street design considers the type of place in which the street is located while balancing the needs of all users.

DMURs aims to put well designed streets at the heart of sustainable communities in order to create connected physical, social and transport networks that promote alternatives to car journeys. As such, DMURs should also be considered in line with other guidelines such as the Cycle Design Manual.

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. It is therefore 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.

Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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341. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he plans to update the Design Manual for Urban Roads and Streets; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11966/25]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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The Design Manual for Urban Roads and Streets was first launched by the then Ministers for Transport, Tourism and Sport and Housing and Planning in 2013. A revision to DMURS, which was issued in August 2019, was overseen by a Steering Committee that included a representative of the National Disability Association (NDA).

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.

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 meets periodically and has prepared a number of training courses, updates to the document and other supplementary material.

Action 61 of the Two Year Progress Report on the Sustainable Mobility Policy highlights the continuation of a joint approach in respect of DMURs to ensure more widespread and consistent implementation (HfA policy objective 21.1) . This action is ongoing and work is underway with respect to the reallocation of street space.