Authorities in Dublin are ‘masochists’ when it comes to clamping, a Fine Gael councillor has claimed.

Dublin Cllr James Geoghegan believes it is time to say, “enough is enough” and get rid of clamping in Dublin entirely.

The contract for clamping services in the capital is up for renewal in July and Cllr Geoghegan is urging authorities not to renew it – focusing on parking tickets and towing instead.

Clamping

On Newstalk Breakfast this morning, he said clamping has not had the effect authorities hoped it would in the 25 years since it was introduced.

“The contract with the provider is up in July and I think this is an opportunity to finally say enough is enough,” he said.

“I actually think when it comes to clamping and Dublin City, we're sort of masochists about this.

“We've just allowed it to continue when in fact, the original aim of clamping, when it was first introduced back at the turn of the Millennium, was to combat traffic congestion – that was the whole purpose, to get the city moving again.

“Regrettably, it's the case that we're still a highly congested city and almost immediately, when we introduced clamping in Dublin City, we recognised the fact that it didn't actually get the city moving again.

“What it did was, it acted as a stick to get people to pay their parking fees.”

Parking fines

Cllr Geoghegan said the increased parking revenue clamping generates for the council is “not a reason to keep it”.

He said clamping is a “blunt instrument” that targets people who may only be in a space a matter of minutes.

“Most cases of clamping, if you go through the statistics every year, are to do with people overstaying for, let's say, 15 minutes,” he said.

“You've dropped your kid into school, you didn't pay the extra euro or two for the 15 minutes that you were running around the corner and the guys are sitting around there - I see it every morning on the Rathmines Road when I'm dropping my kids to school on my bike - waiting around the corner to see someone pull in and then they'll hit you with a clamp.

“It's just not proportionate.”

He said DCC should focus on parking tickets, with dangerously parked cars towed away.

Dangerous parking

Also on the show, Green Party Cllr Michael Pidgeon said just over 80% of people pay their parking tickets when there is no clamp involved.

“So just under one-in-five people aren't bothering to follow up or pay their ticket,” he said.

“So I think that, while I agree with James that I would massively reduce the amount of camping - I think tickets are faster, cheaper, easier and less hassle for people who made a genuine mistake - I think you still need a bit of clamping in the system because unfortunately there is a small minority of people who simply ignore parking tickets and it's very difficult to take them up through the courts.”

He said authorities should focus more on dangerous and illegal parking in bike lanes and footpaths rather than targeting people for non-payment in official parking spaces.