The head of the Climate Change Advisory Council has called on the government to introduce a levy on workers who get free parking in urban areas.
Marie Donnelly told the Oireachtas Transport Committee that there is a provision in Section 18(b) of the Finance Act 2008 to charge for free parking as an additional benefit.
Ms Donnelly said the legislation is already in place and all that is needed is a signature.
She added that not enough measures had been identified to achieve Ireland’s target of a 50 per cent reduction in transport emissions by 2030 compared to 2018 levels.
Ms Donnelly, Chair of the Climate Advisory Council, said the target was “ambitious” and said it will require early and fundamental change in Ireland’s transport system.
“There needs to be some pro rata for the privilege of having free parking. Free parking is worth on average €20 per day and that’s worth around €5,000 per year,” she said, reports RTE.
“Ireland’s planning system needs to be sufficiently resourced to be able to adjudicate and act on the rollout of public transport projects,” she said, reports RTE.
She told the members that “we have plans and we talk about actions but the difficulty we have is we do not action them fast enough. We need to roll out the plans faster, we need to take things from paper and put them into reality as quickly as possible and that is the urgency we face and that is the only way we will stay within our carbon budget both for 2025 and ultimately for 2030 and beyond,” reports RTE.
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