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File image of a wheel clamp on a van in Dublin. Alamy Stock Photo

Top 20 parking blackspots in Dublin revealed after close to 47,000 vehicles clamped last year

A total of 46,931 vehicles were clamped in the city last year – a daily average of 128.

A SIDE OF one of Dublin’s most famous Georgian squares – Merrion Square South – has emerged as the main blackspot for illegal parking in Dubin last year, as overall clamping levels in the capital rose by 6% to almost 47,000 vehicles.

New figures published by Dublin City Council show a total of 46,931 vehicles were clamped in the city in 2024 – a daily average of 128 – and an annual increase of just over 2,800, which represents a return to levels last recorded in pre-pandemic years.

Merrion Square South – which is located near the rear entrance to Dáil Éireann – was the prime location for the detection of illegal parking last year, with 704 vehicles being clamped on the street.

It is the first time that the city centre location, which links Merrion Street Upper and Fitzwilliam Street Lower, has topped the list of busiest areas for parking enforcement.

It was ranked in 4th place in 2023 when 596 vehicles were clamped there – over 100 fewer than last year.

Approximately half of all vehicles clamped in Dublin last year were immobilised for the failure to pay for use of a parking bay or have a valid parking ticket.

Over 5,000 vehicles were clamped for parking on a clearway with Clarendon Street and Ranelagh, accounting for more than 20% of all such cases.

Another 3,200 were clamped for unauthorised parking in a loading bay with two locations – Rathmines Road Lower and Foley Street – accounting for more than 10% of the total.

Almost 1,800 vehicles were detected parking on a footpath with 7% of all infringements occurring on New Ireland Road in Rialto.

Another 1,700 vehicles were caught parking in a bus lane with more than a quarter detected on Waterloo Road.

A total of 450 motorists were found leaving their vehicles in a parking space for disabled persons without displaying a valid badge, while 39 were detected parking on a cycle track.

Just one motorist was clamped for misuse of a parking space for electric vehicle charging.

The overall increase in the number of clamped vehicles in Dublin last year comes against a background of significant traffic changes introduced in the second half of 2024, which were designed to restrict private vehicles accessing certain roads and discouraging motorists from using the city centre for cross-city journeys.

Figures provided by Dublin City Council under freedom of information legislation show revenue from parking was unaffected by the changes as income from parking fees rose by 15% to €36.8m – an annual increase of almost €4.8m.

An additional €5.3m was raised in clamping release fees, which were up 9% on figures from 2023.

The council also received €904,523 from parking fines issued by traffic wardens last year – an annual increase of 6%.

Parking fines were reintroduced in the capital in July 2021 to complement the council’s main parking enforcement method of clamping vehicles in order to address illegal parking offences such as parking on footpaths and bus lanes.

Almost 10,600 vehicles were towed away last year for either parking in a bus lane, in a clearway, blocking an entrance to a premise or for being clamped for over 24 hours without payment.

Most motorists pay the standard clamp release fee of €125.

However, if the release fee is not paid within 24 hours, vehicles are moved to the city pound and can only be recovered on payment of a removal fee of €250 plus a daily storage charge of €35 per day.

The figures show one motorist who failed to pay for parking on Summer Street North in August last year had to pay €950 to get their vehicle back.

Twenty-four other motorists had to pay amounts in excess of €500 to retrieve their vehicles.

The latest data shows Merrion Square South replaced Ranelagh – the name of the main street in the southside suburb of the same name – as the city’s main blackspot in 2024.

The detection of illegally parked vehicles in Ranelagh decreased by 40% last year to 518 incidents and fell to 7th place in the rankings.

Clarendon Street – which runs parallel to Grafton Street at the back of the Westbury Hotel – retained its ranking as the second most common location for vehicles to be clamped with 693.

It was followed by South Circular Road (677); Mespil Road (616); North Circular Road (572) and Merrion Square West (531).

The ten main blackspots remained the same albeit with a change in rankings in most cases.

The only new locations to join the top 20 danger areas for clamping in 2024 were Grantham Street and St Anthony’s Road in Rialto, which replaced York Street and Mercer Street Upper.

Vehicles were found to be parked illegally at around 1,570 different locations across the city by parking enforcement staff from Dublin Street Parking Services operating on behalf of the council.

The greatest number of vehicles clamped in a single day last year was 218 on Wednesday, 12 June.

Data provided by Dublin City Council show motorists are most likely to be clamped on Thursdays, while approximately a quarter of all vehicles were clamped between 8am and 10am.

November was the month with the largest number of clamped vehicles at 4,439.

Figures provided by the other local authorities in Dublin show that illegal parking in some areas surpasses the level of the problem in the city, with 1,586 motorists fined for a parking offence on Main Street in Lucan last year.

They accounted for 15% of all parking fines issued by wardens in the administrative area of South Dublin County Council in 2024.

In Fingal County Council, the worst illegal parking blackspot was North Street in Swords with 1,365 motorists being fined.

Top 20 blackspots in Dublin for illegal parking in 2024

RANK LOCATION VEHICLES CLAMPED PREVIOUS RANK
1 Merrion Square South 704 (4)
2 Clarendon Street 693 (2)
3 South Circular Road 677 (5)
4 Mespil Road 616 (3)
5 North Circular Road 572 (9)
6 Merrion Square West 531 (6)
7 Ranelagh 518 (1)
8 Waterloo Road 514 (7)
9 Chelmsford Road 444 (10)
10 North Great George’s Street 438 (8)
11 Synge Street 389 (12)
12 Fitzwilliam Square North 363 (11)
13 Parnell Street 357 (14)
14 Hatch Street Lower 342 (18)
15 Grantham Street 323 (-)
16 Baggot Street Lower 319 (13)
16 Hatch Street Upper 319 (15)
18 Marlborough Place 312 (19)
19 Saint Anthony’s Road 299 (-)
20 Commons Street 294 (16)

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40 Comments
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    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute NotGreta
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    Jan 30th 2025, 3:24 PM

    But bicycles can park up anywhere, blocking footpaths and entrances with nought done..

    71
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    Mute eoin fitzpatrick
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    Jan 30th 2025, 3:33 PM

    @NotGreta: cars blocking footpaths is a much bigger issue, it’s illegal but ignored by the garda and councils

    49
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    Mute Liam OTailliuir
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    Jan 30th 2025, 4:38 PM

    @NotGreta: Not sure about outside of DCC area but inside it this has hugely improved in the last few years. Before all the bleeper bikes they installed bike parking all over the place. Still tight in spots but it’s done wonders

    6
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    Mute smatrix mantra
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    Jan 31st 2025, 6:38 AM

    @NotGreta: yawn

    1
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    Mute Luke Littler
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    Jan 30th 2025, 2:31 PM

    I just cut off the clamps and leave em there on the street. Nothing they can do about it. Robbers.

    87
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    Mute J Ven
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    Jan 30th 2025, 3:04 PM

    @Luke Littler: your vehicle details are stored, they will prosecute you, track your car when possible and go the debt collection route with increased fines, eventually forcibly taking away your TV or anything of value to recover the debt.

    63
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    Mute eoin fitzpatrick
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    Jan 30th 2025, 3:06 PM

    @Luke Littler: you could always try just parking legally in your imaginary car and imaginary story

    158
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    Mute Luke Littler
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    Jan 30th 2025, 3:53 PM

    @J Ven: nah they never follow up. Must have got through 40 clamps

    13
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    Mute J B
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    Jan 30th 2025, 6:00 PM

    @Luke Littler: you could’nt cut head off a cabbage,,give it a rest.

    15
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    Mute j m m
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    Jan 30th 2025, 6:50 PM

    @eoin fitzpatrick: Very good! Very true.

    3
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    Mute james rowan
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    Jan 30th 2025, 7:27 PM

    @J Ven: dont feed the TROLL

    5
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    Mute james rowan
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    Jan 30th 2025, 7:28 PM

    @Luke Littler: first class TOOL TROLL

    2
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    Mute smatrix mantra
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    Jan 31st 2025, 6:40 AM

    @Luke Littler: that’s nothing.

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    Mute AD Cahill
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    Jan 31st 2025, 10:26 AM

    @smatrix mantra: Yeah. I just bite them off with my teeth and leave them there in the street as a lesson to the clampers and the government. Must have done about 400,000 by now.

    1
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    Mute J B
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    Jan 30th 2025, 3:47 PM

    Disability parking bays,,,,start towing non permit or at very least up fine from 150 to 250euro plus points on licence.

    37
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    Mute eoin fitzpatrick
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    Jan 30th 2025, 3:05 PM

    Wow almost entirely southsider locations. Hooligans the lot of you.

    51
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    Mute Me Me
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    Jan 30th 2025, 3:11 PM

    @eoin fitzpatrick: Northsiders don’t have cars?

    35
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    Mute Brian D'Arcy
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    Jan 30th 2025, 3:23 PM

    @Me Me: Surely Nprth siders would have m9re need of a car because everu bit of transport infrastructure is built on the south side including the Metro despite having the LUAS.

    15
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    Mute Dan The Man
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    Jan 30th 2025, 2:59 PM

    Don’t worry North Circular Road, 5th place could still make the clamping champions league next season!

    24
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    Mute M D
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    Jan 30th 2025, 6:54 PM

    In Dublin you can deal hard drugs freely but don’t park your car for 10 minutes longer…

    31
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    Mute Be Lucky
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    Jan 30th 2025, 3:40 PM

    All about money, if it causing a hazard fair enough anything else just robbery.

    24
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    Mute John Duggan
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    Jan 30th 2025, 5:13 PM

    i remember about 25 years ago coming out to go for lunch and my van was missing, tara street, praying it was stolen it being a work van,
    nope lifted i was 5 minutes in a clearway that morning, totally my fault had to walk to the depot at east wall and pony up

    14
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    Mute donal finn
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    Jan 30th 2025, 6:17 PM

    It doesn’t bother me. Dublin is a kip and I don’t go there.

    16
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    Mute Big Beats
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    Jan 30th 2025, 6:22 PM

    @donal finn: well done Donal. What else doesn’t bother you ?

    10
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    Mute Anne Connell
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    Jan 30th 2025, 7:41 PM

    Only thing I would say is that Merrion St South, or East, is the panic parking areas for anyone coming into Holles Street, been in that situation myself. And unless you are organised with Parking Tag, at some point you just don’t know when your spouse will have a chance to run back to top up.

    12
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    Mute rosemary flowers
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    Jan 30th 2025, 9:12 PM

    There’s no parking at Holles St hospital, the Rialto end of St James’s hospital, the Mater . Tallaght, St Vincents and Beaumont are nearly as bad. Both children’s hospitals are also parking nightmares. The older hospitals have some excuse but newer ones there’s no excuse for not building adaquite parking. We rushed our baby to hospital by car and my husband stopped the car on the street outside the hospital while we ran into the A&E. in the 5 minutes it took my husband to drop me and my other disabled child in to the hospital we were clamped. The clampers claimed we were there hours, luckily we could prove otherwise. It still ment we had to get his parents to sort it out while we sat with our seriously ill 6 week old.

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    Mute Dan Murphy
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    Jan 30th 2025, 8:51 PM

    My car identifies as a bike, so no problems for me.

    9
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    Mute Patrick Newell
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    Jan 30th 2025, 4:28 PM

    I actually saw a council van clamped one time……pretty ironic like

    8
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    Mute Jack Hayes
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    Jan 30th 2025, 4:41 PM

    @Patrick Newell: …like what? Dying to find out.

    10
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    Mute P. J.
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    Jan 30th 2025, 5:25 PM

    @Patrick Newell:
    I took a picture of a parking enforcement van parked on double yellows, right on a corner.
    Dublin 8, near St James Hospital.

    13
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    Mute Setanta O'Toole
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    Jan 30th 2025, 3:51 PM

    Kango hammers are very reasonable these days.

    8
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    Mute rosemary flowers
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    Jan 30th 2025, 8:31 PM

    @Setanta O’Toole: so are angle grinders.

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    Mute Big Beats
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    Jan 30th 2025, 6:20 PM

    Mostly southsiders. I think they should raise the penalty fee on the South side . As they clearly don’t care. Make parking free on northside

    7
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