Mr. Sean Murphy:

Letterkenny. The local chamber informs us that the town council has been extremely successful in changing the parking regime there. Ennis has a very successful living-over-the-shop scheme but the difficulty which arises is that many of the people who now live in the town have their cars parked there all day. Parking is, therefore, a real problem in Ennis. As we understand it from our colleagues in Ennis Chamber of Commerce, not enough is being done in respect of this matter. We should, by all means, incentivise people to live above shops but there is also a need for others to be able to drive their cars into and out of town centres. Free parking for the first two hours should be mandatory all year round and not just in the three weeks leading up to Christmas. In this way we could put an end to cars blocking up parking spaces and mothers, fathers and their children would be able to visit town centres.