Fingal County Council is looking at upping its fees for parking

On Friday afternoon at Charlestown Shopping Centre in north Dublin, cars are everywhere. 

They’re lined up and down St Margaret’s Road, bordering the kerbs, pulling in and out of an underground car park, stretching across vast lots. One or two people wait at a stop for a bus into town. 

Claudio Antypas is outside taking a smoke break on the sidewalk near his work – at the Porsche Centre. 

He said it’s not because he works at a car dealership that he drives in. He comes by car because it makes the most sense for him timewise, he said. Taking the bus, “it makes the trip a lot longer”, Antypas said. 

He is sceptical about plans – outlined in a Fingal County Council document – to increase fees for parking in the county.

One of the aims of the proposed changes is to bring Fingal’s lower fees into line with other Dublin councils’ fees, the document says. Another is to “discourage private car usage in towns and villages”, it says. 

But “are they going to make it easier for public transport and sort the rest of it out?” Antypas asks. “Or they're just going to make more money and still leave it as difficult as what it is now?” 

On the other hand, Daniel Whooley, who used to be a Green Party councillor, says he thinks the fee increase is a good idea. He says he sees the increased rates would make sense given inflation in recent years. 

And it would also bring parking fees closer to matching the environmental and land-use costs of driving private cars, Whooley says. “Using land that could be used for other areas, as I said, bike parking, bus stops, outdoor seating, market spaces."

The real cost of driving has never been priced into parking, he says.

The proposed changes

The document, dated 4 March 2025, proposes changes to Fingal’s parking bye-laws. Fingal has the lowest charges of the four Dublin councils, it says. 

It proposes raising on-street parking charges in places where they are now €0.50/hr to €1/hr, in places where it’s now €1.20/hr to €1.70/hr, and from €2/day in long-stay areas to €5/day.

For off-street parking the range of fees would rise from €0.50/hr–€3/day, to €1/hr to €5/day. 

And for residential permit parking, the cost would increase from €20 for one year or €30 for two years, to €30/€50.

Council managers planned to present the proposed increases to councillors for feedback, and then to the general public as well, through a public consultation, the document says.

Councillors’ reactions

Social Democrats Councillor Paul Mulville said the increase could end up hitting people who don’t have alternatives.

“You’re generating money for active travel, but you’re not really encouraging more people to be moving to bicycles or to buses and trains because they already have cars,” he says.

He also brought up the lack of public transportation options – which he said should be coming, but as of now, don’t exist.

"The government is supposed to be rolling out bus network redesign and more orbital routes ... but they just haven't done them properly," he said.

Fine Gael Councillor Ted Leddy said that he had “deep concerns” about the increase in parking charges. 

“Obviously, I want to see more public transport,” Leddy said. “I want to see improved walking and cycling infrastructure, but some people have to use their cars.”

“For some people, public transport just doesn't suit them, and we suddenly try to – we shouldn't be hounding people out of using their car,” he said. “So we have to get the right balance here, and that's what I'll be arguing in council meetings.”

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.