Maire Devine (Sinn Fein)
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I welcome the Minister of State. This matter relates to the direction given to local authorities regarding residential car parking. We can all say with certainty that this matter has caused a great deal of hassle in areas. Being Dublin-centric, I am speaking about Dublin. I will not address individual requests, angst or fights but there is a great deal of anger and disbelief about the requirement on people to pay for car parking outside their own front doors. We must examine all of the Dublin local authorities' by-laws in their entirety. Will the Minister of State ask local authorities to engage in public consultation in order to update by-laws and provide priority parking for residents on their own streets? Other people leave their cars in their areas and spend the day in town or at work or go on holiday and leave their cars behind for considerable lengths of time.

I asked the Oireachtas Library and Research Service to undertake a research paper on this matter. It is a wonderful research paper. The service examined the five European cities of Edinburgh, Exeter, London, Paris and Amsterdam. While they have no priority parking for residents, there are novel ways of providing residents with parking close to their homes. I would like to send the paper on to the Minister of State.

We need to modernise how people live in the city, with all of its demands on roads and parking. The idea is for people to make less use of their cars, but people will realistically have to use them and park them safely outside their own homes.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I thank Senator Devine for raising this issue. If it is okay, I will take the debate on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Ross, who could not make it this morning.

I wish to clarify the Minister's role in this matter. The parking of vehicles on public roads is controlled either through the application of prohibitions and restrictions under road traffic (traffic and parking) regulations made by the Minister under section 35 of the Road Traffic Act 1994 or by by-laws made by local authorities under section 36 of that Act with respect to public roads in their functional areas. The power to make by-laws is, therefore, conferred on local authorities by the Oireachtas through primary legislation.

Under existing legislation, there is no power for the Minister to give direction to local authorities regarding public consultation so that city parking by-laws can be updated and residents given priority for parking within their estates. Responsibility for traffic management is devolved to individual local authorities, including those in the Dublin area, to enable them to manage and regulate affairs within their own functional areas. Through by-laws, local authorities have responsibility for determining where parking places will be, the level and payment of fees and the conditions to be applied.

Before making by-laws under the Act, local authorities are obliged to consult the Garda Commissioner, give public notice of their intention to make the by-laws and consider any observation or objection that results from that process. This process affords the opportunity to members of the public to have a say in and an input into the shaping of the policy to restrict or prohibit parking in specified circumstances on public roads in specified areas. Any feedback or representation received must be considered by the elected local authority prior to the making of any by-law.

It is appreciated that a certain inconvenience can be experienced by residents when parking congestion arises on a daily basis on public roads in residential areas. At some locations throughout this city, for example, motorists may use residential areas to park if they are working or as park-and-ride facilities while they commute onwards by bus, rail or tram to work and collect their vehicles later that day upon returning, which can cause parking challenges for residents. As the Senator mentioned, people might park in an area for a week while they go off on holiday.

However, there is no legislative provision to reserve parking on a priority basis on specified public roads exclusively to those who reside on them or in the relevant estates. The policy behind this reflects the fundamental principle under road traffic law that the use of public roads is for public purposes. This means that private individuals should not be able to exercise proprietary rights of any nature over our public roads.

While there is no provision for priority parking on public roads by residents, those who wish to avail of on-street parking in their own residential areas, where paid parking operates under by-laws made by the local authority, can apply for a resident's permit from the local authority, which allows them to park on their streets without having to pay the applicable parking rate for the duration of such parking. I trust that this clarifies the Minister's position for the Senator. If the Senator has carried out research, like all Ministers, Deputy Ross will be glad to avail of that and will certainly have it looked over by the Department. I will personally make sure he gets it. The Oireachtas Library and Research Service does great research and I am sure the Senator has access to good research from her own. We are trying to be an open Government and, if there are good suggestions, we will look at them.

Maire Devine (Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister of State. I was hoping the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport might have a bit more influence over transport issues within cities and urban areas. I have been conducting an online survey for the past month, asking about priorities in the Dublin South Central area. Issues of housing and health are coming up as top priorities, but they are followed by car parking. While it might seem a small thing, it is an important issue within a neighbourhood in terms of providing leisure space and a sense of ownership, and it is also conducive to good neighbourly relations. I will send this research to the Minister, Deputy Ross, and ask him to comment on it. If he makes a statement, we will try to work from there. I believe this is essential as we go forward, given roads in smaller estates which were built when it was not foreseen that we would all own a car are not capable of dealing with the level of parking demand.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I look forward to the day when parking takes over from housing as the No. 1 issue. It will come very soon, trust me.