Tom Shehan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

While some might think it is a trivial issue, people who lodge money in banks are exposed to a serious threat at present. There is only one bank in my local town and it has a small carpark used by staff. I am getting hammered with parking fines and I see the same thing happening to people who pull up outside their banks to run in and lodge money. This means people are parking in carparks located several hundred metres from their banks and walking down the street to make lodgments. Criminals are smarter than we give them credit for. They are observing this practice and I predict that people who are walking to their banks will be targeted. A mechanism should be devised, perhaps by ministerial order, to protect people who are lodging money. It was never a written law but it was understood that people who were lodging money would not be hit by parking fines when they pulled up outside their banks. People may think it is a trivial matter but I envisage people being attacked on their way to their banks. We should do something to avert that threat.