I appreciate the opportunity to raise this issue which, when I submitted it, was extremely urgent. It was raised in the context that tomorrow the 150 traffic wardens who are employed by the Minister would effectively be off his payroll. I thank the Minister for responding to pleas from my party leader, deputy leader and myself to postpone the decision in order to allow talks to take place. The situation remains a critical one from the point of view of the traffic wardens. In many cases they have given many long years of service, yet find themselves in no man's land, unwanted by the Department that originally employed them and unwelcomed by Dublin Corporation to which they are being dispatched.
There are merits in centralising all the traffic functions. Indeed, I have argued for it many times. However, the traffic services which will be centralised, and for which local authorities will have to pay from their own resources, must reflect the current traffic needs of the Dublin area. Any service that does not meet these needs is both pointless and wasteful. If local government is to mean anything it must be able to identify its own needs and responses to them, which are effective and efficient and target the problems.
Dublin has changed over the years as have its traffic problems and so have the solutions, both in their nature and scale. None of this, however, is the fault of the traffic wardens. They did the job they were employed to do and did it well. They were loyal employees of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform. If their services are no longer needed, it is through no fault of their own. The Department has a moral and legal obligation to face up to the implications of that fact. It should not pass the problem on to be resolved by somebody else, particularly not to Dublin Corporation which has no responsibility in the matter. It is degrading and demeaning to a group of loyal workers who do not deserve to be forced into a situation of changing their employer and conditions of employment and who are being passed around like a hot potato that nobody wants. It is an unacceptable way for any employer to treat workers. The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform should have the courage and the courtesy, to which the wardens are entitled, to deal fairly and honestly with them. Their demands are by no means extravagant. All they want is either to be redeployed within the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, which employed them originally – from what I hear, the carriage office could do with more resources – or, alternatively, to be offered an acceptable severance package. Such a package should be offered by the Department which employed them, not by another agency that has no real responsibility for them.
I welcome the Minister's response to our request for an extension of the proposed transfer date, to allow some space for a package to be agreed. I hope the Minister will avail of this window of opportunity to deal with the traffic wardens quickly rather than prolonging the stress which the uncertainty is causing them.
While this matter remains unresolved, the Dublin local authorities are inhibited from developing their parking regulation enforcement measures which would be appropriate to today's needs. Maximising the use of our street space and maintaining traffic flows are critical to main taining Dublin's viability as our capital city, against a background of increased car usage, growing congestion and deficient public transport. Dublin's local authorities recognise and wish to have a flexible, mobile and multi-functional core to regulate parking, particularly along the new quality bus corridors, at critical junctions in urban villages, town centres and in residential areas. It is becoming more important to regulate parking because of the emergence of new quality bus corridors, LUAS and the DART lines.
It may well be that many of the existing traffic wardens, with experience and skills that have been built up over the years, would and could take up these jobs, but they cannot be forced to do so. Likewise, local authorities should not be placed in a position where they cannot choose whom they employ or their conditions of employment.
I ask the Minister of State to bring this message to the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to address the concerns of the traffic wardens who are, after all, pawns in a debacle which is not of their making. The Minister should come to an acceptable arrangement with them that would allow both sides to extricate themselves with some dignity.
