Like Senator Eoin Ryan I also welcome this Bill, seeking to extend the authority of traffic wardens to local authorities throughout the country. The introduction of the traffic warden system, while it has shortcomings which I shall mention later, has done a lot to improve the general traffic situation and, most of all, to take some of this responsibility from the Garda.
Like most of my colleagues in the House, I do a fair amount of travelling around the country and I have become very conscious in the last couple of years of the need in provincial towns for a traffic warden system. I am aware that there are a couple of major centres which have the system but there are many other areas which do not have it.
We had some political activity in the west of Ireland earlier this year and for that reason, among others, I made a number of trips to and from Galway. I must say that some of the towns on that route are shining examples of the need for a traffic warden service. There was one town in particular, not too far from Galway on the main road, where, despite the fact that there were double yellow lines marked on both sides of the street, there were always cars parked on both sides of the street. Of course, with heavy traffic coming against a motorist this abuse of the parking system makes it very difficult for a motorist to get through.
I had the experience earlier this year of being held up for some considerable time in this particular town. While waiting I was chatting, through the car window, with a young garda, who was very civil about the whole situation. I asked him if he could not do anything about the traffic chaos and he explained that a number of the gardaí were away on security duty, in court, and so on. One of the things he said which remained in my mind was that traffic control in that town would require two men to walk up and down the street all day, doing nothing else but putting tickets on cars. What I like about this Bill is that it seems to be providing precisely for this need in this town where the Garda are overburdened with their duties of preventing and detecting crime. This Bill will provide the local authority concerned with the power to appoint traffic wardens to do precisely what the garda pointed out as being necessary: to have people observe the parking regulations at all times. What I said about a few towns on the route to Galway applies with equal force to towns all over the country. I saw the same traffic chaos on my away to Killarney and to Cork recently.
I said at the outset, and I repeat, that the traffic warden service has made considerable improvement in the traffic situation in Dublin, but I consider that there is room for improvement in the service. I was astonished to hear the Minister saying in his opening remarks that there are only 40 traffic wardens in Dublin city. I spend my working life in the area of Dublin in which we are at the moment, which is the area of heaviest traffic. In my view it would take four or five times the present number of traffic wardens to regulate the traffic properly. Allowing for the fact that there are 40 wardens operating under the local authority in Dublin and considering that the traffic restrictions are in force from 8.30 a.m. until 6.30 p.m. and that the traffic wardens work a 40-hour week and therefore must operate in shifts, and allowing for the fact that some of them are bound to be sick or on holidays, it follows that there cannot at any time be anything like 40 wardens on duty.
The result is that the service operated by the wardens in Dublin is, in my view, only a hit and miss service. It is commonplace, walking along Stephen's Green, where there are parking meters, to see numerous cars getting away with overparking—the red flag has come up in the meter but there is no parking ticket on the car. It seems to be the system—I do not blame the wardens for it because they are too few in number—that the warden will stroll along there in the morning and penalise any cars he finds overstaying the time allowed at the meters. But he is then obliged to go somewhere else for a couple of hours.
The result is that the scheme is working on a hit and miss basis, and this induces motorists to take a chance. If there were more wardens on duty and if a motorist could be certain that if he broke the parking regulations he would be penalised, there would be a greater inducement for motorists to be more scrupulous in regard to overstaying the time at meters or parking illegally in other places.
On the question of meters, it seems to me from observations over the last couple of years that wardens concentrate their energies on overstaying time at meters rather than what I would regard as a more serious offence— parking in dangerous places where yellow lines prohibit parking or parking on clearways. I do not for a moment condone overparking at meters. The introduction of the meter system was designed to give motorists generally a better chance to use the parking facilities. There may be sympathetic cases of persons who are accidentally delayed, overstay their time by a couple of minutes and come back to find a £2 parking ticket on the car. At the same time the restrictions of these meters should be observed.
It seems to me that wardens in their duties take the line of least resistance. It is easier to walk along by a line of meters and issue tickets to cars who have overstayed their time rather than go around moving cars from dangerous places. Here in Kildare Street, where parking is totally restricted, it is commonplace at any time of the day to find three or four cars illegally parked. I have yet to see one of them being towed away.
With regard to the system of the £2 fine for parking offences generally I think there is a good case to be made for a differential system of fines for more serious offences. At the moment one incurs a £2 fine for overstaying the time at a meter and likewise a £2 fine for parking on yellow lines at a prohibited spot. The only extra risk incurred by parking on the yellow lines is that one runs the risk of having the car towed away with a consequential heavier penalty to have it taken out of the pound. It is obviously a far more serious offence for a person deliberately to park his or her car on a spot where parking is prohibited, because in that case it is a danger to other traffic, than accidentally to overstay the two hour limit at a parking meter. Consideration should therefore be given to a system of differential fines. I am not going to suggest rates. It is within the competence of the Minister's Department or the local authorities concerned to come up with an appropriate system of differential fining.
An example of what I had in mind is this. We all are familiar with Grafton Street, one of the main traffic arteries in the city. Parking is totally prohibited in that street for the private motorist. There is some allowance made for parking during certain hours for loading and unloading vehicles. I drive down Grafton Street most days and I do not think I have ever driven down Grafton Street without seeing cars parked on either side of the street. Once in a blue moon one sees a corporation towcar operating, but that is the exception rather than the rule. Parking cars in a street like Grafton Street, where there is a heavy flow of traffic, has the obvious effect of causing considerable obstruction to traffic. It is commonplace for traffic to be jammed up as far as Stephen's Green and Harcourt Street because of the lack of consideration of a couple of shoppers who parked their cars in Grafton Street while they went into shops to make a purchase.
I mentioned towcars. I was surprised to learn on inquiry that there are only four of these operating in the city of Dublin. Again this is totally inadequate. I would not tell the Minister how many there should be, but allowing for normal servicing requirements it is hardly likely that the four towcars are all available to operate at any given time. I suggest that the number should be doubled or trebled. If ever a service paid for itself I am sure this would.
Another abuse which is widespread in this area of Dublin is the practice known as feeding meters. Senators will be aware that the regulations provide that a car shall not be parked for more than two hours at a meter. As far as I know—I hope the Minister will correct me if I am wrong—it is an offence, having left one's car for two hours at a meter, to put more coins into the meter and thereby extend the time. This is a practice which is very widespread in Dublin and it is defeating the object of the scheme. The object of the introduction of parking meters was to allow the general public to make the fullest use of the very limited parking facilities available and obviously this cannot be done if selfish people are parking their cars all day and feeding the meters.
I have frequently seen in my travels around this area of the city what are obviously employees of offices coming out and slipping coins into a meter— messenger boys, and young girls from nearby offices. It is not hard to guess that these cars belong to their employers who are availing of the meters to park their cars all day and thereby denying people who have a legitimate right to park their cars to find a parking place. We all know the frustration of people, especially visitors to the city, when they have to drive their cars around blocks for hours on end in trying to find a parking place while selfish people are coming in and parking their cars all day and feeding the meters. This seems to be done on a semi-professional basis within sight of this House. There are a couple of hotels in two directions not a hundred yards from the main gate and I have seen uniformed employees of these hotels spending their whole day making forays into the street to feed meters in the vicinity. We are led to believe that this is being done on behalf of clients who are using the facilities of the hotel and are giving the uniformed employees the money to feed the meters. I do not want to make too much of a song and dance about this matter but I would be glad if the Minister would direct the attention of the local authority to it.
In certain areas in Dublin meters are erected on clearways. These meters become inoperative during the clearway hours. I am aware that there is a notice in writing inscribed on the meter warning people that, say, between the hours of 5 p.m. and 6.30 p.m. there is a clearway. I think the practice has been introduced of painting a red band on these meters. I do not think this is enough.
I had an experience a few weeks ago in College Green when a motorist, obviously from the country, at about 5.20 p.m. asked me if I had some 5p pieces as he wanted to park his car at the meter. I advised him not to park there because his car would be towed away. He could not understand this because there was a parking meter there and as he was about to put money in the meter he thought he was all right. I pointed out the notice on the meter to him warning that he was not entitled to park at that hour. For the protection of innocent people like that who parked their cars in good faith and found them towed away to the pound at Christ Church, there should be a more elaborate type of notice displayed on the meter drawing their attention to the fact that they may not park between certain hours. It should not be beyond the imagination of the local authority to superimpose some sort of a metal notice on top of the meter drawing the attention of the motorist more emphatically to the fact that he was not entitled to park there at certain hours.
Mention of clearways reminds me that this, again, is an area where the service seems to be totally inadequate. I travel along a clearway on my way home in the evenings and it is commonplace to find the clearway obstructed at several places by cars which are illegally parked. I am referring especially now to the area between Kelly's Corner and the top of Rathmines Road where the road branches off to Rathgar. That whole area is designated as a clearway on the left-hand side of the road going southwards in the evening at certain hours. As far as I can observe over the months and years there is one traffic warden who seems to have the duty of patrolling the whole length of the Rathmines road from Lee's Store at the top opposite the Stella Cinema, right down to Kelly's Corner. How one man could be expected to do that beats me. He does not even have a motor bike, which the warden supervisors seem to have. To keep that road clear of traffic would require at least three wardens during clearway hours.
As I said at the outset, I welcome the introduction of the service. It can only do good. Although I have heard some concern expressed about the dangers of giving powers such as are envisaged in this Bill, I do not have any worries about it myself. I am certain the local authorities can be relied on to continue to recruit intelligent men who would not overstep their powers. I would not have any worries about the introduction of a Gestapo or any of the fears that have been expressed in the other House. While I have made some criticisms of the service I welcome the extension of it and, in particular, I welcome the benefits that the service in Dublin has brought to the motorist in Dublin.