For the first time in decades, Dublin City Council looks set to change clampers

Dublin City Council looks set to decide not to hire the company Dublin Street Parking Services to clamp and tow cars in the city for the next several years 

Since 2004, each time the council awarded a new parking enforcement contract – generally for five years, with extensions possible – DSPS has won it. 

But on 1 May DSPS operations manager Darren Harris advised staff that “we have been advised that we were unsuccessful in our recent tender submission”. 

“The DSPS contract is scheduled to expire on 31st July 2026. We have been advised that the successful tenderer is intended to assume responsibility for the service thereafter,” he wrote. 

“If and when the transfer of the contract is confirmed, we will engage constructively with the successful tenderer to ensure as smooth a transition as possible,” he wrote.

A DSPS representative declined to comment. 

Neither the council, nor the company Apcoa replied to multiple queries on whether Apcoa is the preferred bidder. 

Dublin City Council has not replied to queries sent on 4 May, 7 May and 11 May asking why it decided to go with a different contractor this time, and what changes drivers and other people in the city are likely to see after the change. 

In response to written queries about the parking enforcement contract put to council managers by Green Party Councillor Feljin Jose and Fianna Fáil Councillor Keith Connolly, the council said the new contract went out to tender in February – and the old contract is due to expire at the end of July.

Long push for change

Councillors have been pushing for years for change in the way parking rules are enforced in the city. 

DSPS operated an “early-leave” scheme under which its crews could knock off early once they clamped or towed enough vehicles.  

Councillors complained repeatedly that there was too much clamping in the city centre and not enough enforcement in areas further out. 

An early-leave incentive scheme would give crews an incentive to head to places where they think they can find easy pickings to get their clamps in fast. Places like Merrion Square featured repeatedly in the top 10 streets for clamping. 

“Outside the city centre, there’s a sense of lawlessness when it comes to parking,” Social Democrats Councilor Catherine Stocker said at a 2024 meeting about parking enforcement in the city.

While the council has declined to say exactly what’s required in the new parking enforcement contract, some councillors say they’ve been promised that it requires clampers to get outside the city centre and spend more time putting manners on parkers in the suburbs more often.

Although council managers, and some councillors, have long agreed that enforcers should turn a blind eye to footpath parking in some parts of the city, where drivers say they do not have any other option – because they don’t have a designated spot and parking with all four wheels on the street would block traffic.

Aside from a push to spread enforcement across the city a bit more evenly, some councillors have also pushed for the new enforcement contract to focus more on keeping footpaths, cycle lanes and bus lanes clear – in addition to catching people who’ve overstayed in their paid parking spot. 

Meanwhile, the council has been moving towards less clamping, and more fines, and the new contract may move further in that direction.  

The National Transport Authority (NTA) has said that Dublin City Council is the only local authority that still clamps vehicles.

Several councillors – including Fine Gael’s James Geoghegan, before he was elected a TD in November 2024 – have proposed ending clamping altogether in the city.  

The council has not responded to multiple queries on whether the new contract will ask the winning company to clamp cars.