Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 14 November 2006
420 Mr. Gormley asked the Minister for Transport if he will change the law in relation to parking on footpaths in order that occupants of houses in residential areas could park on a footpath if the white line was painted on it in order to allow emergency services to enter a specific road or avenue, and so on; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37416/06]
View answerArticle 36 of the Road Traffic (Traffic and Parking) Regulations 1997 (SI No. 182 of 1997) imposes a prohibition on parking a vehicle, fully or partly, on a footway of a public road. In this regard I wish to point out that article 5 of the 1997 Regulations 1997, as amended by SI No. 274 of 1998, provides that the prohibitions in relation to parking on a footpath do not apply where an emergency situation, which could not have reasonably have been expected or anticipated, confronts a road user.
In the emergency scenario referred to by the Deputy, it is not necessary to have regulatory line markings provided on a footpath because, in a given emergency situation, persons would be exempt from the parking prohibition if they proceeded to park a vehicle on a footpath while an emergency vehicle was entering and passing on a public road. I do not propose any changes to the law in relation to this matter.
