City manager defends strictly enforcing parking fine rules

A CITY manager has defended the practice of issuing parking fines and clamping for being even a minute over time because, he said, Irish people were not compliant with the regulations.

Waterford city manager Michael Walsh told an Oireachtas committee that if Irish people knew they had five minutes grace before getting a ticket, “six minutes would become the problem”.

Mr Walsh told the Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Transport, Culture and the Gaeltacht in relation to parking: “We have to acknowledge in terms of this, for whatever reason, whether it is peculiarly Irish or not, we are not a compliant society in this context.”

“Once people understand fully that this is going to be the way it is enforced and administered, then they will operate accordingly,” Mr Walsh said.

He said the general view of local authorities was that public parking control was working well but regulation for private clampers was “non-existent” and seemed only to be governed by the common law.

Members of the committee are taking a role in the pre-heads of Bill stage with a view to contributing to the initial drafting of the legislation in relation to the licensing of private clampers which is a commitment in the programme for government.

The committee called before it members of the County and City Managers Association and two representatives from Cork City Council yesterday to get their views.

Independent TD Catherine Murphy told the committee that it was “not unusual” for motorists to get a €120 clamping fee from a private operator for being a minute over.

She recalled one man who told her after being fined €40 for being five minutes over the time: “That would have bought my daughter a pair of shoes.”