Meetings taking place over Dublin Marathon route

Meetings have been taking place between the organisers of the Dublin Marathon, the National Transport Authority and Dublin City Council over the route and location for the start and finish of the 2024 edition of the event, a minister has said.

According to a report in the Sunday Independent, concerns had been raised with the event organisers about the impact the marathon has on traffic around Merrion Square over the October Bank Holiday weekend.

The event starts from Fitzwilliam Square and finishes at Merrion Square, with other roads in the vicinity also closed to traffic for parts of the weekend.

Following that report, Minister of State for Sport Thomas Byrne said on X that he "fully believed" that the event "should continue to take place through Dublin city centre in future years and have expressed this to NTA and Dublin City Council".

Speaking on RTÉ's Today with Claire Byrne, Mr Byrne said there have been meetings ongoing since the weekend and that he would help from the position of the Government to encourage more engagement as the issues expressed by the NTA and local authority can be resolved with discussion with marathon organisers.

"I don't think it's enough for either the NTA or particularly Dublin City Council to say that you can’t use Merrion Square North, full stop," Mr Byrne said.

"We need to come up with a workable solution for everybody ... so that the marathon would be city centre event like it is in practically every other major city in the world".

He said that much of the disruption is around Merrion Square, which is an inconvenience, but having the marathon in the city encourages an active lifestyle and allows the full flow of tourism benefits.

Mr Byrne said he would work with, help and support both bodies