Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

84. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his plans to increase fixed charge penalty notice fines for illegal parking from €40 to €100; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29286/20]

Neasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

95. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his plans to address the dangers to pedestrians and cyclists caused by dangerous parking; his plans to use his power under SI No. 135 of 2006 to increase the fixed charge penalty notice for illegal parking from €40 to €100; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29369/20]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 84 and 95 together.

Parking on a footpath and parking in a designated cycle lane are both illegal under the current Road Traffic (Traffic and Parking Regulations), as amended, and carry a fixed charge of €40, rising to €60 if not paid within 28 days.

Section 41 of the Road Traffic Act 2010 grants powers to the Minister for Transport to make regulations prescribing different amounts for fixed charge notice offences. The Department keeps these charges under constant review and can intervene to impose increases where it is deemed appropriate.

Most recently, for example, in March 2018 my predecessor, Mr. Shane Ross T.D., increased the fixed charge for the offence of parking in a disabled bay from €80 to €150 in response to evidence presented by An Garda Síochána and by disability representative groups of a sharp rise in non-compliance.

While my Department is open to the possibility of introducing similar increases for other parking offences, such changes will require engagement both with An Garda Síochána and with the local authorities so as to ensure fairness and proportionality and to take into account issues of implementation and enforcement.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

85. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his plans to provide enhanced powers to local authorities and An Garda Síochána to issue fines based on photographic evidence and to encourage them to issue fines based on illegal parking they witness; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29287/20]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Section 81 of the Road Traffic Act 2010 provides for the use of cameras, if so required, by the Gardaí to assist in the detection of certain traffic offences under the Road Traffic Acts. The offences specified include those made under Section 35 of the Road Traffic Act 1994 which is the basis for the current Traffic and Parking Regulations covering, among other things, the parking offences mentioned by the Deputy. This power has been successfully used by Transport Infrastructure Ireland, working in partnership with the Gardaí, in relation to speeding offences and it is available to other road authorities to use those powers on a similar basis for other offences.

Given the burden of proof for the enforcement of such criminal offences, however, the same Act specifically requires that any electronic apparatus used to capture this nature of evidence must have been approved in advance either by An Garda Síochána itself or by Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII).