The legislative basis for the application of immobilisation devices to vehicles which are illegally parked on public roads or in Local Authority car parks is set out in Section 101 (B) of the Road Traffic Act 1961, as inserted by the Dublin Transport Authority (Dissolution) Act 1987. Regulations entitled the Road Traffic (Immobilisation of Vehicles) Regulations were made in 1998 to give effect to that Section.
The implementation of these regulations is a matter for the Local Authorities. Where Local Authorities have contracted private operators for enforcement in relation to public car parking, any issues regarding implementation or the appropriateness of individual decisions to apply clamping are matters for the Local Authorities and the operators to address in the context of their contractual arrangements.