Garda authorities have confirmed to the Minister for Justice Helen McEntee that the number of fixed penalty notices that Gardaí issued for parking on a footpath in each Garda division from January to the end of November in 2024 is 4,454.
Fines for several offences, including parking in a cycle track, bus lane or on a footpath, were doubled rose from €40 to €80 in February 2022. This would put the total estimated revenue generated from the fines in 2024 at €356,000.
The Garda division with the lowest number of fines was Cork County with just 24, while the Dublin Metropolitan Region North Central accounted for almost one third of all fines issued nationally with 1,171 fixed penalty notices.
A common misconception relating to the parking of cars on footpaths is that the practice only becomes illegal or can otherwise be ignored unless the vehicle is obstructing pedestrians or endangering the public.
In fact, the Road Traffic (Traffic and Parking) Regulations 1997 Section 36 (2) (i) clearly states that “A vehicle shall not be parked on a footway, a grass margin or a median strip.”
The practice of car parking on a public footpath has been the source of considerable frustration to disability campaigners for a number of years now, with a number of organisations highlighting the danger this represents for wheelchair users in particular who are often forced into traffic in order to bypass the parked vehicle. They have also criticised the lack of enforcement.
This was reflected in data published by the Dublin Inquirer in August of 2024 which highlighted that in about 70 percent of cases, the council’s parking-enforcement contractor didn’t go to the reported location at all – or didn’t get there before the vehicle left.
The Road Safety Authority has also initiated campaigns urging drivers to park responsibly, saying that illegal parking results in blocked footpaths, meaning vulnerable road users such as the visually impaired, people with buggies, children and older pedestrians do not have adequate room to walk safely, potentially forcing them out onto the road.
There has also been some pushback against the strict enforcement of the law however with one Dublin City Councillor calling in September of 2024 for a more flexible approach to the enforcement of fines, specifically in areas where residential streets are narrow and where only two wheels of the vehicle are on the footpath.
Cllr Cieran Perry (Independent) told Dublin City Council Central Area Committee: “I’ve had a couple of reports of cars being clamped for parking two wheels on the path and as we’ve discussed on numerous occasions given the size of the roads in the Cabra area it’s not possible to park on the road without full four wheels of the road without blocking the roads.”
Groups such as the Dublin Commuter Coalition have previously called for the introduction of automated enforcement of parking rules using cameras.
“The current system of parking illegally on a footpath, bus / cycle lane or in a loading bay while running into the shops encourages illegal behaviour which would be solved quite quickly by automatic camera enforcement,” the Coalition said.
Information on the number of fines was supplied in a parliamentary question to Sinn Fein TD Sorca Clarke.