Why does it cost more to park in one town in Tipperary than in county's other towns?

The high cost of parking in Clonmel was once again a topic for discussion at a meeting of Clonmel Borough District.

Cllr Richie Molloy said that although a review of parking charges was being undertaken across the county, he feared that this would lead to an increase in the cost of parking charges in other towns, instead of the charges in Clonmel being reduced.

He said there should be an hour or two of free parking in Clonmel early in the morning to encourage people dropping children to school to stay in the town centre.

SEE MORE: Television documentary about Tipperary man who was buried alive

He said that a similar concession was available in Cahir.

District Mayor Pat English said that it took only six months to harmonise rates across the county.

READ NEXT: Magnificent seven All-Stars for Tipperary

However, ten years after the county councils in north and south Tipperary had been amalgamated, Clonmel was still paying higher parking charges than in other towns.

Mark Connolly, Director of Finance at Tipperary County Council, said there was a lot more to the harmonisation of parking charges than revenue. It was an extremely complex process and everything was in the mix.

The issue of parking charges was raised during a discussion on the Draft Budgetary Plan for Municipal Districts.

Mr Connolly said that the discretionary funding allocated to Clonmel Borough District was just under €203,000. Discretionary funding allocated across the county had increased from €954,000 in 2024 to approximately €1.362 million for 2026, which represents an increase of approximately €400,000, or just under 43 per cent.

He stated that the General Municipal Allocation (GMA) to the Municipal Districts only refers to the discretionary funding that is allocated to the Municipal district.

“The GMA does not replace the main, strategic, non-discretionary expenditure of the local authority, which forms part of the main local authority budget preparation and the spending of which will be prioritised by the members as part of the development of a schedule of municipal district works after the 2026 budget has been adopted”.

He said that the total provisional allocation for the General Municipal Allocation for 2026 is €1,361,283, comprising €1,011,279, (arising from the decision to increase the Local Property Tax at the September 2024 Tipperary County Council meeting) and €350,004 of an allocation similar to last year. This is allocated to the districts based on the population of the Municipal Districts at the time of the 2022 census.

Cllr Siobhán Ambrose said that the council’s costs continued to increase but the allocation received from the Department of the Housing, Local Government and Heritage didn’t reflect that increase.

She said they would continue to raise this issue at LAMA (Local Authority Members Association), as would the officials.

Based on the figures received from Mr Connolly, Cllr Ambrose said she would be happy to propose the adoption of the budget.

However, Cllr Niall Dennehy said that “every year, this GMA €200,000 discretionary spend has a definite resonance in Clonmel, compared to the €26 million in today’s money that the Clonmel Corporation councillors had discretion over in 2014.

“When taken in context, poor Clonmel,” he said.