Six Dublin drivers clamped over 50 times in four years

Six motorists in Dublin have had their vehicles clamped over 50 times over the past four years, costing them at least €4,000 each in parking fees.

Six Dublin drivers clamped over 50 times in four years

The vehicles of another 55 motorists were clamped between 21 and 50 times since 2013.

New figures show there are more than 2,000 other persistent parking offenders in the city representing around 3% of all motorists who had their vehicles clamped last year.

The annual report by Dublin City Council’s parking appeal officer reveals that 2,048 motorists have been clamped between five and 50 times since 2013.

A further 11,608 vehicles were clamped between two and four occasions over the same period.

The parking appeals officer, Bill Kielthy, said it was clear that for the 2,000-plus motorists who had been clamped more than five times that current clamp fees were not an effective deterrent.

“The six most persistent offending motorists were each clamped, on average, once every three or four weeks in the 48 months,” said Mr Kielthy.

The standard release fee for a clamped vehicle is €80. Motorists must pay €160 to have their vehicle released if it was removed to the city pound.

Mr Kielthy said he believed there was a strong case for updating the regulations to allow for a tiered system of fees to target persistent offenders.

“For example, cars clamped more than say three times in the previous 12 months could face clamp release fees of €160,” said Mr Kielthy.

He added: “If that did not work then the council should have the right to increase this fee further for these types of offenders.”

The role of the parking appeals officer in Dublin will be abolished after the National Transport Authority it recently assumed responsibility for the oversight and regulation of all public and private clamping in the Republic.

Draft regulations proposed by the authority will impose a cap of €100 as a maximum fine for parking infringements.

Mr Kielthy has repeatedly called for the standard clamping fee in Dublin to be increased to €130 as the existing €80 charge has been unchanged since 1998.

Motorists will also be entitled to a grace period of 10 minutes from the expiry of their parking ticket or from the time a parking enforcement officer finds their vehicle has no parking ticket before their vehicle can be clamped.

In his final report, Mr Kielthy said the appeal service had played a key role in improving the quality of parking enforcement in Dublin Overall, the figures show the level of parking offences are relatively low given there were over 24m on-street parking “events” in the capital last year.

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