Eoghan Murphy (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)
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Question 547: To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his plans to make it possible for local authorities to introduce partial footpath parking in urban areas. [33353/12]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I corresponded with Dublin City Council on this matter on a number of occasions in the past year. In essence, the argument for allowing partial parking is that it would alleviate certain parking difficulties in the city, while the arguments against relate to safety. I believe the arguments against a change substantially outweigh those in favour of change.

Footpaths are provided for the safety of pedestrians and to segregate vulnerable road users from passing or parking traffic on the roadway. Footpaths are not constructed to the same specifications as roads and are not built to bear the weight of vehicles. Local authorities could face problems such as potential damage to kerbs, paths and utility access covers. Finally, if pavement parking is allowed in some areas, it could become a matter of habit for many people and difficult to restrict to the areas where it is legally permitted.

In the absence of any new evidence or arguments for allowing partial parking on pavements, I have no plans to change the law in this regard.