Paul Murphy Joins Liffey Valley Workers Protesting Parking Charges
Paul Murphy criticised new staff parking charges at Liffey Valley after joining workers protesting outside the shopping centre. He said the charges amount to an effective pay cut, urged Liffey Valley to continue offering free staff parking or to cover public transport passes, and challenged the Taoiseach over the role of Hines.
Protest and worker impact
Mr Murphy reported that workers face at least €600 annually in parking costs if they must use staff parking, with potential bills rising above €2,000 if they are forced to use customer car parking. He described this as an effective pay cut and said the workers are "100% right to campaign against it, to fight against it."
Demands for employer responsibility
He called for Liffey Valley to be forced to offer free staff parking as previously provided, and argued that if the employer wants to encourage public transport then the employer should be paying for travel passes.
Criticism of the owner Hines
Mr Murphy directly criticised Hines, the real estate investment trust that owns Liffey Valley, noting it manages more than €3.7 billion worth of assets in Ireland and accused it of trying to "squeeze even more profit out of these workers."
Appeal to the Taoiseach and dispute resolution
He asked the Taoiseach to condemn the actions and also said these matters should be resolved through normal employer-employee labour relations mechanisms. Mr Murphy urged both sides to enter a process to settle the dispute in the interests of all concerned.
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Teachta, on Sunday I joined workers protesting outside Liffey Valley Shopping Centre. They have been protesting over the last few weeks about the implementation of parking charges for them. The costs will amount to at least 600 euros annually for many of the workers, which they'll have to pay just to come to their Liffey Valley workers' car parking charges. If they cannot find a space in the limited staff car parking and have to use the customer car parking, this could rise to over 2,000 euros. This is an effective pay cut for these workers. The workers are 100% right to campaign against it, to fight against it. Liffey Valley should be forced to offer free parking for their staff, as they have up until now. And if they want to encourage workers to take public transport, well then they should be covering public travel passes. Taoiseach, do you agree that it's disgusting that Hines, the real estate investment trust that owns Liffey Valley, with more than 3.7 billion euros worth of assets in management in Ireland, is trying to squeeze even more profit out of these workers? I Deputy Murphy raised, and this has been raised consistently in the House in terms of Liffey Valley car parking. These are issues that should be resolved through the normal employer-employee labour relation mechanisms. and it does seem to be a very odd sort of dispute and in my view it should be one that both sides should seek to resolve in the interests of all concerned. I think the public you know will be somewhat taken back by what's occurring but again I don't have the full detailed background of it but I would urge both sides to get into a process to get it resolved.
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