A delegation of Government Ministers met retailers based in Stillorgan Village Shopping Centre amid an ongoing row over the introduction of car-parking fees in November.
Some of the retailers are withholding rent from its US owners in light of a drop in business they say has been caused by the parking fees, with Minister of State Neale Richmond claiming the fees make ‘zero commercial sense’.
The car parks, which are owned along with the shopping centre by US investment giant Kennedy Wilson, are operated by private parking company Euro Car Parks Ireland. A charge of €1.20 an hour was applied just weeks before Christmas.
Local Fine Gael politicians Maeve O’Connell, Minister of State Richmond, and Councillor Eoin O’Driscoll were joined by Minister of Enterprise Peter Burke, and Minister of State for Small Business and Retail Alan Dillon at the shopping centre on Monday where they met retailers on the issue.
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Among the retailers who met the politicians were the managers of the Tesco, Donnybrook Fair, and McDonald’s locations in the centre, alongside a series of smaller shops – but did not meet Kennedy Wilson.
“Everybody is just looking for one or two hours of free parking, which we think is very reasonable,” Deputy O’Connell told The Irish Times while speaking at the shopping centre.
“Everybody accepts the fact that all-day parking can be an issue, and can be bad for businesses if you don’t have enough turnover in car-parking spaces, but one or two hours of free parking is something that is fairly common in the shopping centre in the surrounding area,” she said.
“We already have vacant shops here. What we need to be doing is attracting more shops in order to increase the vibrancy of the shopping centre, not reducing it,” she said.
Noting that the centre hosts a post office and a public library, Minister of State Richmond said: “To be frank, the introduction of paid parking makes zero commercial sense.”
“From my point of view, we would be very keen for the centre owners to engage with the businesses a little more seriously, because they are absolutely frustrated that this was foisted upon them and their customers in the lead-up to Christmas.”
Hillary Kinsela, the proprietor of Du Pareil Au Même in the centre said: “I am delighted that the Ministers and TDs came to support us and hear about the issues we are facing.”
“[Deputy] Maeve O’Connell has been engaging with us from day one, and we are thrilled to hear they are supportive of the introduction of a period of unpaid parking.”
Retailers at the shopping centre told The Irish Times in recent weeks that the introduction of parking fees was reducing footfall at the shopping centre.
Shop owners pointed to figures showing revenue at their businesses had been commonly hit by as much as 10 per cent, with some stores seeing up to 20 per cent of their revenue lost.
