Vol. 434 No. 5
68 Mrs. Doyle asked the Minister for the Environment if his attention has been drawn to the considerable nuisance being caused in residential housing estates by the parking of articulated trucks by their drivers outside their private residences; and the plans, if any, he has to introduce legislation to instruct local authorities to provide secure parking areas for such vehicles.
Local authorities are empowered under section 101 of the Road Traffic Act, 1961 to provide off-street parking facilities for mechanically propelled vehicles and to make by-laws governing the use of such facilities, including by-laws restricting the classes of vehicles which may be admitted. It would not be appropriate for me to instruct local authorities regarding the use of such permissive powers.
Under existing legislation, restrictions on the parking of vehicles on public roads are applied generally through the application of by-laws or temporary rules made by the Garda Commissioner with my consent under sections 89 and 90 of the Road Traffic Act, 1961, or through general traffic regulations made by me under section 60 of the Road Traffic Act, 1968. I understand that the question of applying restrictions on the parking of large vehicles in urban areas is being considered by the Garda Síochána in the context of temporary rules which would apply initially in the Dublin area.
