Civil service parking - Taxpayers left to foot the bill

THE average taxpayer has to pay benefit-in-kind, so there is no reason civil servants should be exempt from paying for parking spaces for which the public has to foot a bill of almost €11 million annually.

The total cost of 3,954 parking spaces for civil servants in Dublin comes to over €8.5m a year.

The cost of those spaces ranges from €31,751 for 10 spots for select members of staff at the Department of Finance in Lower Mount Street to €25,461 for seven spaces in Merrion Square, which works out at almost €500 extra for each of those slots.