Dublin City Council is to remind clamping officials that hey do not have the right to break the law, following a controversial clamping incident earlier this month.
The council is also reviewing procedures used by clamping officials, following its receipt of a report on the incident by the clamping company, Control Plus.
The Irish Times has also learned that the motorist in question, Mr Nicky Potterton, will have his clamping fee refunded.
Mr Potterton claimed that he was "blocked like a criminal" after he removed a clamp from his jeep on Middle Abbey Street on February 6th.
He claimed that he had been clamped in error. He was driving a goods vehicle and paying commercial insurance and believed that he was entitled to use a loading bay.
"Within minutes, seven clamper cars double-parked around me and 16 men surrounded me," Mr Potterton said after the event.
Two Garda squad cars and two gardaí on horseback made the event look like a Garda drugs raid, he said.
Yesterday, Mr Owen Keegan, Dublin City Council's director of traffic, said that "an unfortunate set of events" had followed the clamping of the jeep.
The manner in which clamping officials responded to incidents was being looked at. More than one vehicle often responded to incidents such as these because of personal safety fears, but "there was an element of overreaction here", Mr Keegan said. These procedures would be reviewed.
He said that the incident had highlighted an anomaly in the vehicle taxing regulations and the city council was asking the Department of Transport to look at this issue.
Vehicles are licensed either for private or goods use, with goods vehicles being allowed to use loading bays.
However, some vehicles such as jeeps fall into both categories. In these cases, the more expensive class (private) should apply.
Some local authorities stamp or print "goods" on these dual-use vehicles and it is understood that this was the case with Mr Potterton's jeep.
The stamp was not recognised by the clamping officials and this was where the problem arose.
A Control Plus supervisor was summoned, but the situation escalated when Mr Potterton began to remove the clamp.
Mr Keegan said he accepted that both parties had acted in good faith initially, but unfortunately an element of overreaction followed from both parties.
He said that the footpath should not have been mounted by either party involved.
Mr Keegan said that thousands of vehicles were clamped every year, but the small minority of problematic cases were always highlighted.
Clamping officials enforced the law fairly rigorously and it was unfortunate that they were pilloried because of that, he said.
