Clamping 'not always suitable, but is only current option', say clampers

An Oireachtas committee on the regulation of clamping has heard submissions from operators who admit that clamping is often unsuitable as a means of managing car parks.

Members of the clamping industry appeared before the Joint Committee on Transport, Culture and the Gaeltacht to discuss regulating clampers.

Director of the Irish Parking Association Neil Cunningham said: "Everbody can justify why their car should not be clamped.

"A clamp doesn’t fit all situations… Unfortunately at the moment, when you come off public property that is the only way we can enforceparking, by clamping a car."

The question of clamping people in hospital car parks was also a subject of much debate.