Sir, With "Traffic Flow" in full swing, there is a mad dash by people with mobility problems when going into town, to try and secure one of the few designated disabled parking zones.
It has often been my experience that numerous able bodied people abuse these spaces. This problem also occurs on a huge scale in shopping centres, and when I approach these people, have often received a lot of verbal abuse.
This whole area needs to be addressed by Dublin Corporation Traffic Department because unauthorised parking in a disabled zone is not listed as a traffic offence in the traffic wardens' offences book. On occasions when people have been summoned for parking in a disabled zone, it has not been upheld in court, and they merely get a "slap on the wrist".
We have heard on a number of occasions that our Government have a genuine commitment to cater for the needs of people with disabilities. This however did not seem to be the case on Friday, April 19th, when Mr Quinn and his political colleagues were attending a meeting at an EU office in North Great George's Street. To my disgust as a wheelchair user, the politicians "hearse like vehicles" were parked, blocking access points and using all of the disabled parking zones. These offences seemed to be with the Gardai's approval as they stood by.
I would like to point out to Mr Quinn's colleagues that we are striving to educate the public and I would expect the example of common decency to be set by those in leadership roles.
We have a National Rehabilitation Office in North Great George's Street, which provides numerous services to people with disabilities and this is one street where people with mobility problems attend, making these parking facilities especially needed.
To solve this problem I suggest that all the politicians attending meetings in the future pile into one of these "hearse like vehicles", and be dropped off.
If we cannot solve the small issues today, I am sure it will be a while before we can solve the many injustices we face on a daily basis. Yours, etc.,
Russell St, Dublin 1.