LUAS lines limit height of St Patrick’s Day parade

Participants in this year's St Patrick's Day parade in Dublin have had to ensure that their floats are no taller than 5.5 metres due to the new LUAS tram system in the city.

The organisers had asked the Department of Transport to sanction the removal of overhead Luas power lines across O'Connell Street to facilitate the parade.

However, the request was rejected and all floats must now be no taller than 5.5 metres.

In past years, some have been more than double that.

The Railway Procurement Agency has rejected criticism of the refusal to facilitate larger floats, saying the LUAS lines would have had to be taken down for three days from March 16 to 18.

It also said that the number of floats affected by the overhead lines would be minimal.