Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am disappointed that the Minister of State ended his contribution by suggesting the Government would not support the Bill. My party is happy, in principle, to support what Deputy Dessie Ellis is trying to achieve. Although it is a relatively short Bill, the Deputy has indicated that he is prepared to amend elements of it if the Government sees fit to at least take into account the principle he is seeking to address. The Bill underlines the need for a shift in power towards local authorities and citizens, rather than a centralised approach. This would enable by-laws to be applied in problem areas, rather than having a one-size-fits-all approach. The Bill offers an opportunity to discuss important issues around parking in general and fees, in particular.

The Bill would enable the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, in consultation with the Minister for Justice and Equality, to draw up regulations to remove abandoned vehicles in public spaces. This is a major issue for people living in urban areas and cities who are trying to maintain communities in a clean and tidy manner. The notion of abandoned vehicles can present a big difficulty. In built-up areas of my constituency small community and neighbourhood groups have come together to attempt to clean up areas and attract positive attention. They seek to get people involved in the maintenance of areas in a neat and tidy manner. For no good reason, others seek to undermine such efforts by abandoning vehicles, which is both annoying and a nuisance for so many communities. We must try to tackle this problem.

The Local Government Reform Bill, pressed through by the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Hogan, fails to address the imbalance of power between local and national government. We need to empower local authorities to tackle these problems and make local decisions. This Bill would afford an opportunity to create by-laws to deal with these problems.

A related issue, not contained in the Bill, is nuisance parking by people who want to avoid paying fees during shopping trips or daily commutes. Fianna Fáil has put forward detailed proposals to address this as part of its vision to revitalise town centres. We propose a review of the parking fee structure in out-of-town developments, a new graded parking fee structure and payment methods and special parking offers to encourage people to visit town centres. This would help re-energise towns while also encouraging people to park legally.

One of the major problems undermining the vitality and viability of Irish towns is the burden of hefty parking charges in town centres in contrast to the cheap or free alternatives in out-of-town shopping centres. The additional cost of parking, wide variations between local authorities, high fines when one overstays the allotted time and the prospect of clamping combine to deter people from shopping in towns. The so-called doughnut effect, which has been recognised in many other countries, is a proliferation of activity on the outskirts while the centre is hollowed out, which damages the vitality of a town. It had implications also for planning law. Local authorities have grown accustomed to using parking charges as a revenue-raising mechanism rather than viewing them as an impediment to businesses, which pay significant rates while their business is sucked out by the areas out of town where customers get free parking. Parking charges penalise customers for shopping in towns, which leads to an increasing number parking illegally.

Any parking charge structure should be equitable across all shopping locations rather than penalising town centre shoppers, which also penalises town centre businesses that pay significant rates and generate revenue for the local authorities. It should be a sustainable source of revenue for local authorities that can be reinvested in the towns and be used to attract people back into urban centres. The current parking charge system is a burden on cash-strapped customers, with a knock-on effect on the businesses that rely on them.

The current system of a standard rate per hour and the need for coins is inconvenient for customers and discourages short-term visits to the towns. There should be a graded parking charge structure and more modern payment methods. This would involve lower costs for shorter stays, with the price escalating for longer stays to deter commuters from parking in town centres. In addition, to make trips into town more convenient and cheaper, we should broaden the payment methods available for parking charges to encompass Internet and debit card payments. The penalty system imposed for overstaying should also be implemented on a graded basis. Minimum fees should be imposed in the case of brief overstays, with costs rising as the length of time involved extends. The focus should be on taking the hassle out of a quick shopping trip into town.

Special parking offers to encourage town centre visits could also be used to revitalise town centres. Flexibility and incentives to attract people back into towns must be at the heart of local authorities’ parking strategies. Special weekend festivals or late-night shopping offers should be accompanied by complementary breaks in parking charges. A frequent-user reduced rate or day break from charges would help encourage greater use. These reduced payments for frequent weekly visits should be integrated into the pricing structure. Local authorities should use innovation and flexibility in parking charges, with local initiatives such as free Fridays to draw additional customers into town.

The wide variety of charges across towns is not simply linked to the differing costs in the provision of parking spaces. There is a wide disparity in parking charges across local authorities. A national parking league showing the various parking fees would bring greater transparency to the system and encourage greater efficiency between authorities and towns. Voters could use this information to lobby their representatives to reduce onerous rates while businesses could use the information to press for greater services on the basis of higher parking costs. The presence of a clear league centralised on the website of the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government would encourage greater efficiencies in local authorities when they set out pricing structures that help bolster the transfer of best practice between bodies. Combined, these measures will help ensure that cars are not inappropriately parked or abandoned. Local authority by-laws should deal with these continuing problems.

My party echoes Deputy Ellis’s concerns about the abandonment of cars. While the Minister of State has outlined the Garda procedures for dealing with the perpetrators of these offences, I look forward to more action by the Government on this.

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