Galway City Council is to examine the introduction of alternative illegal parking deterrents after councillors agreed that clamping is simply not working in the city.
The current system is operating at a loss of about €200,000 a year. The contract is set at €569,775 per annum regardless of how many cars are clamped.
Mayor of Galway city Brian Walsh, a former advocate of the clamping system, proposed at this month's meeting of the city council that clamping be abolished by next summer.
However, he agreed to modify his proposal after city manager Joe McGrath appealed to councillors to be more realistic.
Mr Walsh's new proposal condemned the current operation of clamping in the city and requested that officials come back with a detailed report by February 28th on the options for dealing with illegal parking, which may include a limited clamping service.
Cllr Michael Crowe proposed that clamping be immediately suspended for one month, but Mr McGrath said this would "bring the city to a halt". Since clamping was introduced in Galway in November 2000, there have been numerous problems and two companies have not had their contracts renewed.
The current clamping contract with Central Parking Ltd ran out in June and is now being renewed on a monthly basis.
A report presented to the council on Monday revealed that 81.3 per cent of all vehicles clamped since the beginning of 2005 had been in council-controlled short-term car parks.
Almost every councillor has called for the abolition of the current clamping regime, calling it "draconian" and "inhumane" and blaming it for driving tourists away from Galway as well as affecting city centre business.
