As a motion to ban vehicle clamping in Co. Mayo has gained backing from a municipal council, Newstalk Breakfast discussed whether Ireland should follow suit.

The clamping byelaw was proposed and passed by Castlebar municipal council at the beginning of August, with Cllr Michael Kilcoyne saying "[it's] generating more money than some of the shops in the town."

Keith Gavin, director with the Irish Parking Association joined Shane Coleman on Newstalk Breakfast to explain why he feels clamping is not the solution to all parking transgressions. 

Clamping

“We have actively campaigned for years with successive transport ministers to be given the option to issue fines as an alternative to clamping,” he says. 

Mr. Gavin believes that Ireland is “very much an outlier to have clamping as the primary method of enforcement of parking.” 

Although he supports the initiative in Castlebar, Mr. Gavin says that “the council are probably overreaching to try and introduce byelaws for what will happen [anyway] on private land.” 

Issuing fines as an alternative also brings its own problems, as it has been noted that many people could avoid paying these fines and therefore evade the law. 

Mr. Gavin says that there are obstacles that stand in the way of enforcing such a measure: “The main impediment to parking operators issuing fines is that they cannot access the National Vehicle Driving file, so they can’t pursue the vehicle owner. 

“I did previously suggest that if a person amasses a certain amount of fines, that it could be linked to penalty points."

Mr. Gavin says that there have been delays in getting any action implemented.

“We keep hitting a stone wall, Data protection is put forward as the excuse - but it’s allowed for toll operators, so I don’t understand why it’s not allowed for parking operators.

"There needs to be an alternative.

“The only method they [parking operators] have in enforcing the rules on private property is through clamping”.

Written by Cara McHugh.