Pre-tax profits have fallen by 27 per cent at the company which provides the clamping service in Dublin City.

Central Parking System Ireland provides the service for Dublin Corporation via its wholly owned subsidiary Control Plus Ltd.

Pre-tax profits at Central Parking were down to €388,436 for the year ended September 30th, 2003 compared to €538,433 in the same period in 2002. Gross profit was down from €816,294 to €626,743.

The company denied the drop in profits was related to a fall in the number of motorists being clamped in Dublin. It pointed out that it had several parking enforcement contracts throughout the State.

"When comparing financials it is important to take into account that Control Plus won new contracts in Cork and Galway which came on board well into the 02/03 period. These contracts were subject to considerable up-front investment by Central Parking System, particularly in terms of start-up costs, and this has caused a perceived drop in profits in the period," said a statement.

"In addition, during this period we saw a substantial increase in staff wages and general insurance costs which contributed to reducing our operating profits," said a spokeswoman.

"No contracts were lost in this period," she emphasised.

According to Dublin Corporation 60,855 cars were clamped in 2003, with 29,090 clamped by the end of June 2004.

This year the local authority expects to collect €5.2 million in revenue from motorists. It will pay Control Plus about €8 million for providing the clamping service.

A spokesman explained that parking enforcement did not pay for itself and the Corporation had to accept a certain loss.

He said Control Plus was paid a flat fee for providing the parking enforcement service. The system did not provide rewards for the number of cars clamped annually, he emphasised.

The local authority is currently evaluating applications from several companies to provide the Dublin clamping service. The contract, currently held by Control Plus, was put out to tender several months ago.