Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

What happened with the Liffey Valley Shopping Centre, I believe, is well documented as to why it was built beside a motorway and not in the community where it was supposed to be, which would have made it accessible by foot to many members of the community. Staff in Liffey Valley Shopping Centre have suddenly been informed that they must now park in an overflow car park at a cost of €2.50 a day. Not only that, but the public can also park in that same overflow car park, which creates capacity issues causing great stress to the workers. In addition, there are only 550 car parking spaces for over 2,000 members of staff. The car parking could cost staff up to €600 per year and these changes are to come into operation on Monday.To put it in perspective, €600 per year will wipe out the energy credit the workers are due to get. It is effectively a pay cut for the staff in Liffey Valley. Senators may have seen that the workers were out protesting at the weekend. I express my solidarity with each and every one of them. This seems an outrageously costly change for staff. The reason given by management for the change was a decision to shift towards more sustainable modes of transport, but that just does not add up. The infrastructure is not there. It is coming but the location of the shopping centre is problematic for people trying to get to it. As we face cost-of-living increases, the workers are now going to be charged just to go to work. The management of Liffey Valley needs to review the change and continue to talk to staff, unions and tenants because staff at the centre should not be out of pocket because of these changes.

I have seen some commentary whereby people have stated that it is only €2.50, but that is still €2.50 out of your pay cheque just to get to work. Also, most of the workers are not able to get into that overflow car park. One worker was saying that the car park is full from morning-time, and workers may be on late shifts. Parking then costs €12.50 per day. Thus it will cost workers €12.50 per day to go to work. I reiterate my solidarity with the Liffey Valley workers. As I said, I am all in favour of a modal shift but you cannot just bring in something overnight when workers do not have an alternative, especially those who work late.