Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This happened at 9 p.m. By my own mental process, I assumed it did not operate after a certain time of day. Apart from that I was concerned about the Parnell Street issue. Perhaps the Minister would look at it. I do not mean he should be micro managing but if it is happening in Parnell Street is it happening in other places? Why is it that Parnell Street is one of the areas in the city with the highest rate of clamping? I concur with the Minister that this was a wonderful process which came through the joint committee. Increasingly, the Government has been using the committee process rather than just providing heads of Bills. It was excellent and the Minister paid tribute to that.
However, I am somewhat disappointed in one regard. In his contribution the Minister said:

In policy terms, it is not the aim of this Bill to determine in what places clamping should or should not take place. Neither does it set out to decide parking policy.

I have a real problem with this because, as the Minister is aware, there has been a great deal of controversy surrounding the charges imposed at hospital carparks and people who have been clamped and continue to be clamped in hospital carparks, without any regard whatsoever for the context or circumstances in which the owners of that car may have found themselves in default of the policy of the hospital relating to parking. It is most unfair, in fact it is bordering on the inhumane, because the chances are that the reason the car ended up exceeding the time limit had probably to do with something that took place inside the hospital. I do not think people deliberately exceed the time limit, once they go into a hospital carpark and pay a charge, which most people do, and in the context of clamping that is what happens. Surely there should be some regulation in that area because it seems, under the provisions of the Bill, that hospitals can continue to operate carte blanchein any way they wish relating to parking policy.

For a start, the charges are unfair and really excessive relative to public roads. The policy of clamping cars in hospital carparks should be re-examined also. In that context, I was disappointed that section 9 of the Bill provides for the National Transport Authority to make regulations. Nowhere does it say, however, what the charges will be. That does not allow Members of the Oireachtas to debate this matter. The chances are that it will come through a statutory instrument, which will not allow for any debate.
When I read the explanatory memorandum I expected it to provide details of the period of time that would expire after the detection of the wrongful or unlawful parking of a vehicle in a clamping place before a clamp may be fixed to the vehicle or a vehicle may be relocated. I am taking that one, apart from all the other subsections included in the large section 9. I would like to have known what the time limit is once somebody defaults, given the examples I cited. There is nothing to indicate what the times are.
I refer to the infamous case of the journalist, John Waters, in Dún Laoghaire. He was charged with exceeding the parking time but he argued that he thought he had 15 minutes' grace. I did not know there was such a thing. There may be nothing in law to indicate such a period of grace, whereas in practice there could be. If it is not in the law, similarly it applies to this section because I will leave this debate without any knowledge whatsoever of the time limits involve from the time one defaults to when the clamping operators can move in. That is critical. I appreciate that Bills of this nature tend to be worded like this. The Minister will more than likely reply by stating that is the way the process works. He will say that the broad structure and aims of the Bill are presented here, while the detail follows later. I have always believed, however, that that is an inherent flaw in our parliamentary system because it does not give Oireachtas Members the right to question.
Perhaps the Minister can clarify how section 9 will be implemented by his Department, given that this power is being handed over to the NTA. The NTA will then publish the data outside the political framework and we will not have any opportunity to debate whether or not the system is fair. Presumably the Minister will give some direction to the NTA in this regard because the authority comes under his brief. The NTA will therefore not act autonomously, although the Bill may give it that autonomy. If it does not, however, and if the Minister has any say in the matter, I plead with him to act in order to minimise the discomfort, inconvenience and annoyance felt by the general public. A fair time should be given. It could be five minutes but some period of grace should be afforded before clampers can move in to legally clamp a car.
I wanted to mention other things but I appreciate that I have run out of time. We will get a chance to discuss them in more detail on Committee Stage. In his introductory remarks, the Minister said:

It is entirely reasonable that landowners need to be able to deal in a fair and cost-effective manner with nuisance parking. For example, in relation to the parking of cars all day in a shopping centre to the obvious disadvantage of other customers, or in apartment complexes to the inconvenience of residents, the owners or managers involved should have the right to take reasonable action.

That is a complex area. For example, supermarkets would be reluctant to follow up prosecutions because they may feel they might lose customers. On the other hand, they have a legitimate point in that some people park there. At weekends, particularly on Sundays when a large number of GAA and soccer matches occur across the country, many towns and villages which do not have sufficient parking facilities for large games, use these carparks. In the context of parking policy, I hope they will operate fairly and reasonably in this regard.

I hope this Bill will not tighten the law to the extent that people coming out of a sporting event might find their car clamped. Some people might say that the law now gives us the right to do this.