Traffic Signs Manual.

The Manual was first published in 1996 by the Department of the Environment. The current version is published electronically in nine chapters plus a preface. The preface states that the Manual constitutes a direction given by the Minister for Transport to road authorities under section 95(16) of the Road Traffic Act 1961 in relation to the provision of traffic signs, and that local authorities and Transport Infrastructure Ireland must work to the latest revision of each chapter, including when setting planning conditions.

Chapter 1 defines a public road as a road over which a public right of way exists and whose maintenance is the responsibility of a road authority, and states that only signs in accordance with the Manual or associated regulations may be provided on public roads. Regulatory signs, road markings and signals are also prescribed in the Road Traffic (Traffic Signs) Regulations 2025.

Every chapter, the Traffic Signs Advice Notes, working drawings and archived editions are on the Department's traffic signs website, roadguidelines.ie. gov.ie also hosts a Traffic Signs Manual page. The former Chapter 10, Typical Applications, has been removed, and its updated illustrations are published as resources on roadguidelines.ie. We link to the official copies and do not republish them, as we have not found an open reuse licence stated for the Manual.

Chapter 1 states that it is a statutory requirement for place names on information signs to be in both Irish and English, with exceptions for Gaeltacht destinations directed by statute to be shown in Irish only, and for names spelt similarly in both languages, which are shown once in the Irish form. Chapter 2 prescribes Transport Heavy for directional information signs, an Irish script inclined at 15 degrees, Irish placed above English in left-aligned bilingual blocks, and limited abbreviation and condensing where the two names differ greatly in length. For a wayfinding scheme on a public body's campus, the Official Languages Act may also apply to the non-traffic signs.