Kildare First Responders receive parking fine during call out

The possibility to give parking grace to Community First Responders (CFRs) whilst on call – despite opposition from both legislation and the Executive – stayed alive to fight another day after a compromise offered by a third councillor managed to buy this worthwhile idea some more time.

The Social Democrat pair of Cllrs Chris Pender and Pat Balfe brought this motion at this week’s meeting of the Kildare-Newbridge Municipal District: “that the Council implements a parking pass scheme specifically for emergency first responders to allow them to park in designated areas when responding to emergencies”.

“This pass should grant temporary parking access without the risk of penalties, ensuring that first responders can efficiently and safely attend to emergencies in a timely manner”.

“Something similar to what key workers had during Covid, maybe not as expansive, but we are talking about people who are integral to our communities,” offered Cllr Pender.

“I have been approached by CFRs who have been fined while attending an emergency, and they haven’t got past the first stage of appeal,” he noted.

“To double down, it’s proven they save lives and everything they do I on their own time with their own car, but they are part of the official response service,” clarified Cllr Balfe.

“Every second counts and they have enough to be thinking about without worrying about getting a fine, so is there any way Kildare County Council can issue a bye-law on this?” However, he did not get the reply they were hoping for.

“There are no provisions in road traffic legislation to permit this, [only] official emergency vehicles such as ambulances are exempt under road traffic legislation in the event of attending an emergency,” explained Mark McLoughlin, Chief of the Roads Section in the formal reply.

“There is also an appeal process in place where persons or organisations can appeal fines which will be considered,” he offered as a compromise.

“The concern here is that the precedent would be very had to police, and might encourage members to hand out their permits,” he shrugged.

“I don’t like this, I’m not saying everyone would, but there are bad actors everywhere,” said Cllr Suzanne Doyle in support of the official line.

“This would not be a problem if the appeal process worked, but at the moment I’m with Mark,” she said.

“They have attended 125 calls in Newbridge this year alone, and they save lives, they’d be unlikely to abuse the system,” said Cllr Pender.

“It worries me that there might e too much permits to issue,” offered Cllr Rob Power, “but there is an official log book they must sign in on, and maybe we could use that in an appeal?” “If we can get details of those appeals, we can have a look at that,” conceded Mr McLoughlin, and it was agreed that this issue would now go on the monthly Progress Report.

In solidarity with the CFRs Cllr Peggy O’Dwyer, Chair of the meeting said: “that happened to me in Dublin during Covid when I was a vaccinator, and the appeal failed. I wasn’t an ‘essential worker’”.