Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)

I move amendment No. 18:

In page 15, between lines 34 and 35, to insert the following subsection:

"(2) Section 2(1) of the Principal Act is amended in the definition of "public road" by the addition after that definition of "and for the purposes of any provision regarding offences or regarding regulation of road traffic or parking also includes such other roads designated by a local authority for the purposes of this Act, being roads within housing estates that have not been taken in charge by the local authority.".

I raised these issues on a number of occasions last year with the then Minister for Transport, Deputy Cullen, which he undertook to consider for the purposes of a Bill he had promised for the end of the year, but which he did not produce. I ask the Minister to accept these amendments, or at least the principles they contain, because they are issues which arise on a regular basis, have arisen increasingly in recent times and cause a lot of difficulty at community level.

They relate to the powers of gardaí and local authorities in the context of the designation of roads. Amendment No. 18 refers to situations where estates have not yet been taken in charge. This is a significant issue around the country where, for one reason or another, several hundred estates have not been taken in charge, such as where a developer does not satisfactorily complete the work or moves onto another housing estate. Members of local authorities are asked regularly to commence or speed up the process of taking estates in charge.

My concern is over speed limits and parking restrictions. I have seen situations in my own constituency where the developer might put single or double yellow lines in an estate but, while they act as a deterrent, they are not enforceable by gardaí because they are not public but private roads, as the estate has not yet been taken in charge. Equally, gardaí in such estates are not able to enforce speed limits. This only came to light last year from various parliamentary questions I had tabled but it is a potentially very dangerous situation and is an accident waiting to happen. Gardaí are powerless to do anything about people breaking the speed limit, and we are all aware of the problems about which people contact us regarding people, often young, inexperienced drivers, whizzing around housing estates with no regard for speed limits.

Speed limits do not apply to housing estates which have not been taken in charge and there is no way of restricting parking by the use of yellow lines because they are not enforceable in law. The purpose of the amendment is to deal with this very real issue. I am not sure the point has been fully grasped by the officials who have replied to my parliamentary questions but it is very serious and must be addressed as soon as possible. I suggest that a local authority be given the power to designate roads or estates as public roads for the purposes of enforcement of speed limits and parking restrictions. It does not mean such estates would be taken in charge there and then, but that they could be designated as public roads, because at the moment they are public places but not public roads.

I also wish to raise a problem that has arisen several times in my constituency and I am sure it applies in many other urban areas. It relates to rows of neighbourhood shops with a footpath to the front. Sometimes the footpath is very wide and the practice develops whereby people, such as those from the businesses themselves, park on the footpaths. Gardaí have no power to deal with such parking where the footpaths are privately owned. I have researched this in some detail recently and very often the business people own the footpath, or part of the footpath, which are private landings taking up a substantial section of the footpath to the front of their businesses. Alternatively, a diffirent person may own the footpaths, as the piece of land might be part of a trust dating back many years. One section of the footpath could be owned by several different people, companies or trusts. They are essentially privately owned and the Garda cannot enforce parking restrictions on those footpaths.

Many of these footpaths are often badly maintained and I have many examples in my constituency of potholed footpaths. They are broken up and pose a danger to pedestrians, but local authorities have no way of dealing with them. The public think the local authority is responsible when the paths are not maintained, but the paths are privately owned. The local authority has no way of compelling the owners of these footpaths to maintain them properly.

This issue could be addressed properly in this Bill. Local authorities should have the power to oblige the private owners of footpaths, which are public thoroughfares, in this regard. Local authorities need a mechanism for dealing with this issue and they should have the authority to require the owners of these areas to maintain them properly. Where the owners do not do so, the authorities should have the powers to carry out the repairs and to bill the owners. This is a sensible way of dealing with this growing issue but there is no legislation to enable local authorities to do anything about it. At the moment we wait until there are a number of accidents and people take cases to court. In one part of my constituency, five people have already suffered serious injuries on a section of a footpath with a very bad hole. All five are suing the owners, but this has been going on for five or six years. Meanwhile, members of the public are in a very dangerous situation and the local authority is powerless to do anything about it.

Deputy Stagg wants to speak about my third amendment, which is about the over-restrictive nature of the guidelines set down for local authorities when introducing parking schemes. It is currently not possible for local authorities to designate a parking area for residents only, or for any other category of user. We are increasingly seeing the phenomenon in urban areas where people park their cars all day in a residential area near a bus stop or railway station. It is very difficult for local authorities to deal with that issue. They can only introduce disc parking, which makes parking available for the public but charges residents if they need an annual permit. That costs about €130 every two years in the Dublin area. More and more residents are forced to resort to this measure but there is no way of introducing restrictions which allow only residents to park in the area without opening it up to everyone else who needs to use it. Greater flexibility needs to be given to local authorities to introduce localised parking schemes which are suited to a particular local area.

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