John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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Question 420: To ask the Minister for Transport if he will change the law in relation to parking on footpaths in order that occupants of houses in residential areas could park on a footpath if the white line was painted on it in order to allow emergency services to enter a specific road or avenue, and so on; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37416/06]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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Article 36 of the Road Traffic (Traffic and Parking) Regulations 1997 (SI No. 182 of 1997) imposes a prohibition on parking a vehicle, fully or partly, on a footway of a public road. In this regard I wish to point out that article 5 of the 1997 Regulations 1997, as amended by SI No. 274 of 1998, provides that the prohibitions in relation to parking on a footpath do not apply where an emergency situation, which could not have reasonably have been expected or anticipated, confronts a road user.

In the emergency scenario referred to by the Deputy, it is not necessary to have regulatory line markings provided on a footpath because, in a given emergency situation, persons would be exempt from the parking prohibition if they proceeded to park a vehicle on a footpath while an emergency vehicle was entering and passing on a public road. I do not propose any changes to the law in relation to this matter.