On-street parking charges to fall in Dublin city

THE COST of on-street parking in Dublin is likely to fall after 6pm on Thursdays and all day on Saturdays.

Under a review of current parking arrangements – which blames falling retail revenues on the current economic downturn, as opposed to parking costs – Dublin city council’s Traffic and Transportation Committee has recommended the first ever decrease in charges.

The proposals to reduce parking charges by up to 90 cent per hour in the heavy demand yellow and red zones, on Thursday nights from 6pm and all day on Saturdays, will now go out to public consultation. After this, they will be considered by the full city council. Charges would fall to €2 per hour in these areas at these times. Thursday evenings and Saturdays are traditionally among the busiest times for shoppers in the city.

Backers of the proposal, including the City Business Association, want to see the reduced charges in place in time for the Christmas shopping season. The association says many businesses have been severely hit by the introduction of the College Green bus gate and can’t afford to wait for a review of that project in the New Year.

Another proposal being considered in Dublin City Council’s review is for a ten-fold increase in charges for private firms using the city parking bays for promotional events vehicles, from €50 to €500 per day.

The review claimed that €50 per parking bay per day was “totally inadequate when dealing with applications from large organisations involved in profitable promotions”. But the review recommended that charities should continue to be allowed to use the spaces for free.

Two suggestions in the review – that Dublin City councillors might avail of free parking permits for themselves and that the councillors in future allow amendments to the pricing structure to be made by council officials – were rejected.

Fine Gael councillor Mary O’Shea said the members thought the proposal for members’ free parking was “nonsense”, while the proposal that more control be ceded to council staff was “an attempt to gain greater control of the parking system which could have allowed management to override everything we have done”.