Gino Kenny on workplace parking: warns against penalising workers

Minister, my question is around clarification for any plans to remove or penalise workers who avail of car parking spaces in their workplaces. The Government's position on parking, including workplace parking, is largely reflected in the recent Climate Action Plan. Broadly speaking, the plan recognised the role of car parking, both availability and price, in people's choice to use a car, and the associated impacts that this can have on climate emissions, as well as on traffic congestion and the efficient operation of urban areas. Within the context of managing traffic and transport demand, the plan also includes a commitment to develop a new national demand management strategy. For clarity, transport demand management is a term that's used to describe mechanisms for increasing efficiency in the transport system by reducing travel demand rather than increasing capacity. As part of the process of developing this strategy, consideration will be given to a range of measures to support such efficiency. Some of these will be parking related and will be considered and informed by the Five Cities Demand Management Study, which was published in 2021, and the modelling analysis undertaken by the NTA to inform the transport input to the Climate Action Plan. The removal of free workplace parking was highlighted as one of many potential measures for consideration. However, I want to be clear, there are no plans at this stage to remove workplace parking parking for those with no viable public transport options. Further, I want to assure the Deputy that the Government fully recognised the fact that any demand management measures, including possible measures related to workplace parking, can only be effective and equitable when alternative, more sustainable public transport and active travel options are readily available, and understands that significant cohorts of the population are locked into their car dependency by virtue of location or work-related shift patterns. The Government will continue to invest in active travel infrastructure and public transport services to support greater travel options for all workers, including frontline workers, with a particular focus on large public sector hubs such as hospitals, ensuring that those who have no other options are not unfairly penalised. In this regard, the Climate Action Plan encourages public sector bodies to lead by example and specifically encourages them to support their staff, service users and visitors by promoting the use of bicycles and shared mobility options as an alternative to car use by creating and maintaining complementary facilities, including secure and accessible parking, shared mobility parking and charging stations as appropriate. The Climate Change Advisory Board has called on the Government to implement a levy on workers who get free parking in urban areas. The idea behind that is to change individual behaviour. But as you stated, if people don't have – I am sure people do not want to be in their car for hours on end. That is the last thing they want to be in when they come to work. But if you do not have alternatives, particularly around public transport and people, you know, more than ever, you know, cycle into work, sometimes kind of carpool, walk, running, you know, whatever, and that is good. That is really, really good. But if you do not have alternative, particularly public transport, I do not see how you could, you know, take this provision away for boarding your workers, particularly frontline workers, where there is no alternative other than the car. If you had much better public transport links around the country, then people, I am sure, would take that rather than be stuck in the car. I think such a levy, Deputy, goes back to the Tax Consolidation Act from 1997, I think it was. 2008. It must be updated then or further. But either point makes the point, like we have been talking about this for a long time, and it is not an easy one because it is very sensitive. As I said, people in many cases were locked into certain transport systems because of 50, 60 years of car-dependent planning. Now, that we need to change. It is a combination of measures, it is not only one, and I do not think, in general, I think what we have to avoid here is punitive, point of the finger, blaming or pricing people out of things. I think it is about reallocation space, including car parking space and road space, so that the alternatives become cheaper and quicker and preferable, and start going into a virtuous circle rather than where we have gone the last 40, 50 years, that because everything was designed around people having cars and driving cars, that it just gets to gridlock, it just won't work for anyone. So, and I think we have seen in COVID that we could actually change things, we have showed that work patterns can change. This is the opportunity, having promised something for 20 years, to start doing something. Mr. Minister, you will not be signing that legislation, the finance bill, I think it is 2008. There is obviously a provision in that bill that, you know, it can be signed by you in relation to, you know, introducing charges in relation to a levy on workers. So, obviously that is good that you won't be signing that. I mean, there is a lot of corporate greenwashing going on, and I will give you really one good example. Liffey Valley Shopping Centre introduced staff car parking charges. Listen to this, in October of last year, the average worker, where they do not have alternatives other than the car, will pay 600 euros per year just to park the car to go to work. Now, that is equivalent to a pay cut for workers that are on, you know, an average wage. Now, obviously the shopping centre, they have introduced kind of sustainable travel between cycling and public transport. But even the public transport links weren't even in by then. So, this is corporate greenwashing at the worst in relation to, you know, penalising ordinary workers just to come to work. First, I think it's the Minister of Finance actually is designing order on any such measures, so they'd have a key role in anything. Can I say, I go back to the point I made, we can't do this as a punitive thing where certain workers have been forced into, you know, a workforce mode, transport mode, and then kind of change the conditions from under their feet. But I think it does speak of a wider issue. We've seen in this city a real cost to everyone from the way often involving corrupt planning, where we saw the rezoning of the outer city and the design even of that motorway in a way that was by definition going to be unsustainable. And very expensive for people in time and fuel costs and so on. And that's the real problem we have. It's that cost, it's the hours stuck in traffic that's costing people as well as the car parking is the real problem. Now, that's all history, that's going back 30 years plus. What do we do now though? I think what we do is we create the alternative so the bus is super fast and super quick and super cheap. And that then gives people, and that allows us, but we do have to look at this whole system, the transport in this city particularly, the same applies in other cities, and see can we retrofit more sustainable practices to something that by definition it wasn't. So, thank you very much.