Garda cars the target of capital’s clampers

GARDAÍ rather than criminals were the target of a new clampdown yesterday.

The nerve centre of the force’s fight against crime in Dublin was hit in a swoop by the city’s official clampers.

The clampers immobilised at least seven garda vehicles outside the force’s Dublin Metropolitan Region Headquarters on Harcourt Street.

The initiative follows a recent directive from Dublin City Council allowing its agent to clamp garda cars which were previously exempt.

“Our instruction from Dublin City Council is that we can clamp official unmarked tax-exempt garda cars that are illegally parked,” said Gráinne Kelleher, chief executive of Dublin Street Parking Services.

Dublin Street Parking Services took over from Control Plus as the council’s clamping authority after it won the contract over a year ago. The garda vehicles clamped outside the Dublin HQ were either unmarked garda cars or privately owned garda cars.

Ms Kelleher said privately owned garda vehicles were treated as normal cars. Two of the unmarked cars were clearly garda vehicles. One had blue garda lights attached internally to the windscreen while another had a portable flashing blue light on the dashboard.

Two of the garda cars were parked entirely on top of a footpath outside the main entrance to the Harcourt Square HQ. These cars were parked alongside a parking bay designated for official garda vehicles.

Three garda cars were parked across the road on a footpath on Hatch Street Upper opposite a white line, which is illegal.

Two other cars were parked on Hatch Street Upper without pay and display tickets. A garda spokeswoman said the clampers were entitled to operate.

The Dublin HQ houses some of the force’s top units including the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation and the Criminal Assets Bureau.