Rumours that Dublin's St Patrick's Day parade will be winding its way along the traditional route for the last time this year have been dismissed by officials.
The parade traditionally begins at St Patrick's Cathedral and snakes along Dame Street and O'Connell Street before ending up in Parnell Square.
But the construction of tram lines and overhead cables on O'Connell Street have cast doubt over the future of the parade.
The first of the city's Luas lines is due to open in June and there were fears that the cables would force the parade to be re-routed next year.
However this prospect has been dismissed by the festival organisers as well as the Rail Procurement Agency and Dublin Tourism.
Mr Frank Magee, chief executive of Dublin Tourism and a director of the St Patrick's Day festival, said there were no fears that the colourful parade was in jeopardy.
"We are having ongoing talks with all parties involved and there are a number of ways and plenty of time to get around the problem before the 2005 parade," he said.
Mr Ger Hannon, a director of the Rail Procurement Agency, said there was no question the Luas would stop the street from witnessing the event.
"The most obvious solution is to turn the power off for a few hours which is a relatively simple operation," he said.
"This would allow almost all floats to pass under the cables with only a handful exceeding the six metre limit."
Mr Hannon added that the cables could be taken down although it would take a few days and be an expensive operation.
"There are certainly solutions and we are optimistic there will be no problems," he said.
Ms Marie Moynihan, chief executive of the St Patrick's Day festival office, is concerned about having to scale down the size of the extravagant parade but the company confirmed talks were ongoing and they were confident of a resolution.
Construction work in O'Connell Street has been scheduled around this year's parade so it will not be affected.
The event has already been given the green light by Dublin City Council and a license is expected to be signed next week.