Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour)
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690. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his plans to hold a public consultation on allowing a local authority to provide for designated car parking places in streets that are congested; if he has held meetings on this with respect to a road (details supplied); the outcome of same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21586/14]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Traffic management and the designation of individual parking spaces in our cities and towns is a matter for the local authority concerned and I have no function in the matter. 

The Deputy may be referring to the issue of parking on public footpaths.  Such a departure from current practice raises issues around the safety of pedestrians and the need to segregate vulnerable road users from passing or parking traffic on the roadway. Additionally footpaths are not constructed to the same specifications as roads and are not built to bear the weight of vehicles.

I accept that there are also arguments which can be put on the opposite side, particularly in the case of very narrow streets where on-street parking would block traffic flow.

As I have indicated recently, I am willing to consider this issue further. The matter would need to be examined in some detail in consultation with key stakeholders and interested parties before any decision could be made with regard to the possibility of a pilot scheme.  I propose to engage with the  National Transport Authority which is the appropriate body to conduct such an examination.