Dáil debates

Thursday, 22 January 2015

Vehicle Clamping Bill 2014 [Seanad]: Second Stage

 

1:40 pm

Photo of Clare DalyClare Daly (Dublin North, United Left) | Oireachtas source

It is an indictment of the situation that this is the first time we are discussing vehicle clamping regulations in this House. What we have had on the ground, in many areas, is some companies operating like extortion rackets. Clamping firms are patrolling the streets, trying to ensnare and entrap unsuspecting motorists. This is an area which needs to be regulated and controlled and while I welcome this Bill as a move in that direction, I am not sure that it fully addresses the situation. That said, I welcome the fact that we are, at last, discussing the area of regulation.

However, we cannot discuss regulation in a vacuum and must do so in the context of the companies providing the service. Deputy Wallace and I have met the clampers who carry out the work for Dublin City Council on a number of occasions. As a result of financial pressures and the huge amount of money that can be made from this activity, those workers were being put under unbearable pressure to achieve targets for fines and clamping, which completely stood on its head the principle of what vehicle clamping should be about. If that is the case with a body that carries out work for a local authority, how much worse must the situation be in the private sector?

How are these regulations going to be enforced? The Bill provides the NTA with the power to oversee and enforce this legislation but how much additional resources will the NTA be given to do this? The NTA would be far better off spending its time trying to get people out of cars and onto public transport by developing a comprehensive public transport system in the cities around Ireland. That would take the pressure off the parking situation while also contributing to a reduction in our carbon emissions and so forth. The NTA should not be spending its time acting as an adjudicator in the money-making racket that clamping has become. While I welcome some regulation, I would prefer to see a situation where we are either greatly restricting the ability of clampers to engage in their activity or even banning clamping outright.

We must step back and look at why clamping and parking charges were introduced in the first place. The motivation behind it was the need to moderate driver behaviour. That was what it was supposed to be about - to ensure free flow. It was to stop the person who was so brazen and who blocked the yellow box or parked on the double yellow line, causing an obstruction. Clamping gave the power to remove the obstruction and allow free flow and I do not think any right-minded person would disagree with that in principle. It was a valuable contribution in the public interest and was very important in the context of health and safety and so forth.

However, that ethos - or the excuse given to introduce clamping - has been stood on its head. Parking fines and clamping are now a lucrative business. In essence, what they represent is part of the process of the privatisation of public space. Clamping is a lucrative money-spinner for the local authorities - against the backdrop of huge cutbacks to their budgets - and for other more unscrupulous individuals as a fund-raising mechanism for themselves. This scenario is not just confined to Ireland. In Britain last year the transport committee of the House of Commons examined the area and found that councils were exploiting parking fines in order to raise revenue illegally. That was the finding of British MPs. The RAC found that the surplus generated from these activities - on-street and off-street parking under public control - was almost €600 million per annum. It became a source of funding which the councils relied on for their other activities.

This has also become a multi-million euro industry in Ireland, as Deputy Ellis pointed out. The five main city councils in Ireland collected almost €50 million in parking payments, including clamping, in 2013 and nationally, the figure is €115 million annually. Those figures do not include moneys raised by private operators. Tens of thousands of vehicles are being clamped in Dublin every year. Retailers and other business people in the cities have argued that over-zealous parking fines and clamping regimes are contributing to driving people away from city centres and are acting as a deterrent to important economic activity. Hard-pressed motorists would agree.

All of this is a consequence of a society which has not invested adequately in public transport. That is where the pressure is coming from. Parking fines and clamping release fees have become another stealth payment that people must pay. In some cases, they must pay to park outside their own homes. Some people are living in areas regulated by management companies, for example, and those companies are failing to provide a decent service and are in dispute with residents. As a punitive measure, the management companies are introducing clamping and denying people the right to park outside their own homes unless they pay disputed management fees. It is extortion and means that people cannot live comfortably in their own homes. It is disgraceful and should be regulated far more than what is provided for in this Bill.

Public clamping in this city has been too successful in some respects. In the early years when clamping was introduced in Dublin it succeeded in moderating driver behaviour. One no longer sees any of the ridiculous carry-on that used to happen years ago. However, because the private company to which the activity was outsourced had to make a profit, targets were built into the contract.

This was a reprehensible decision because increasing targets turns clamping into a revenue generating exercise and another stealth charge on hard-pressed motorists who are already being fleeced in other ways and would prefer in any case to use a bus or train service if public transport were available in their areas.

In recent years, clampers have been sent out to engage in reprehensible activity. Pressure was placed on them to meet targets with the result that mothers rushing a child to hospital had their cars clamped when they parked outside the hospital. Certain areas also became known as rich in easy pickings. Docking workers' wages for failing to meet clamping targets placed them under pressure to drive out to places such as Crumlin hospital at the end of their shift to victimise a few families. Unfortunately, this was the only way they could prevent their wages from being docked. Unsuspecting tourists have also been subjected to ridiculous decisions. For example, tourists who parked at the lights outside Kilmainham Gaol received parking tickets because one car tyre extended slightly beyond the white line. This practice of seeking easy pickings is the result of pressure to make profit arising from a contract negotiated by Dublin City Council. The problem is significantly worse in the unregulated private market.

I appreciate some of the measures in the Bill, for example, in respect of signage because the lack of signage in some areas is a joke. I have been clamped many times and neither I nor anyone I know who has been clamped has ever successfully appealed a clamping decision. The only time the clamping company can be reached is when a telephone call is made to have the clamp released by providing credit card details. People do not have any human contact and they never receive a genuine personal letter that addresses their grievances. This issue must be dealt with. If the appeals process is to be meaningful, it must be independent.

Cities cannot be run on the basis of private transport. I would much prefer if the National Transport Authority were to use its limited resources to develop a comprehensive public transport system for Dublin and the rest of the country, rather than wasting its time adjudicating on what has become another stealth charge on ordinary people.

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