Vehicle Clamping Act 2015

Clamping regulations

10. (1) For the purposes of the proper management of clamping activities in the public interest, the NTA may make regulations (“clamping regulations”) in relation to clamping places prescribing all or any of the following:

(a) the period of time which shall expire after the detection of the wrongful or unlawful parking of a vehicle in a clamping place, before—

(i) a clamp may be fixed to the vehicle, and

(ii) a vehicle may be relocated;

(b) the period of time within which a clamp shall be removed from a vehicle after payment of a clamp release charge and, where the vehicle has been relocated, after payment of a relocation charge;

(c) the restriction of the imposition or the amount of charges in addition to the maximum charge prescribed or provided for under section 15 ;

(d) access, in a non-statutory clamping place, to a vehicle, which has been relocated, by or on behalf of its owner, in order to recover it;

(e) requirements in relation to the type of clamp that may be used;

(f) where evidence of unlawful or wrongful parking is gathered by means of photographs, video or other recording methods, the manner of such gathering;

(g) the means of identification to be carried, displayed and presented by a clamping operator (other than a member of the Garda Síochána or a traffic warden), including identity cards or any other means that may be specified;

(h) other than in relation to a vehicle being used by, or at the request of, a member of the Garda Síochána, the means of identification and markings to be displayed on vehicles used in relation to carrying out clamping activities;

(i) the form of a clamping notice (other than for a vehicle clamped under section 101B);

(j) the manner in which payment of a clamp release charge or relocation charge may be made;

(k) the records to be kept in respect of clamping activities;

(l) the information to be provided to the NTA or an authorised person—

(i) by a parking controller, in relation to clamping places under his or her control (including clamping activities taking place there), and

(ii) by a clamping operator, in relation to clamping activities he or she or his or her employees carry out;

(m) where information is provided by electronic or other means to the public regarding clamping activities in a clamping place, the form and content of that information.

(2) The NTA, in making clamping regulations, may set different requirements and conditions in respect of—

(a) statutory and non-statutory clamping places,

(b) different clamping places, and

(c) different circumstances, different hours of the day and different areas.

(3) Regulations made under paragraph (a), (b), (e) or (f) of subsection (1) do not apply to a vehicle clamped or relocated by, or at the direction of, a member of the Garda Síochána.

(4) A person who fails to comply with or contravenes a provision of clamping regulations, which is stated in the regulations to be a penal provision, commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a class C fine.

(5) The NTA shall not make clamping regulations which—

(a) relate to statutory clamping places, or

(b) contain a provision which is stated in the regulations to be a penal provision,

without the consent of the Minister.