DUBLIN’S PARLIAMENT STREET will be traffic-free each weekend this summer from today.

Cars, buses and other vehicles will not be able to access the street from 11am to 11pm every Saturday and Sunday until late August.

Deliveries can be made on the street up to 11am. Essex Quay and Essex Street will remain open with local access maintained between Essex Gate and Essex Street East.

It comes after traffic-free trials took place on Parliament Street last summer on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 6.30pm to 11pm.

Dublin City Council (DCC) said feedback from last year’s trials and others conducted in 2021 found that people wanted “more family-friendly times”.

As a result, a DCC spokesperson said a “decision was made a number of months ago to start this year’s measures from 11am and run them over the weekend”.

The Office of City Recovery has said that a series of family-friendly activities, including face painters, giant games and magicians, will be held on the street today and tomorrow from 1pm to 6pm. 

There will be traffic management on site during the hours of the traffic-free arrangement.

During the traffic-free weekends, Dublin Bus has advised that diversions will take place on the 69 bus route towards Hawkins Street. The bus will operate a normal route towards Rathcoole. More information can be found on Dublin Bus’s website. 

Emergency vehicles will still be able to access all locations on Parliament Street during the traffic-free weekends, DCC said. 

Permanent changes to Parliament Street are currently being finalised as part of the City Centre Transport Study.

A draft of the study will be published for public consultation in August or September.

Capel Street, which is the adjoining street across the River Liffey, went traffic-free in May of last year. The move was made permanent last November.