Donegal County Council has been urged to do more to raise awareness of digital payment options for parking in local towns.
One in five parking payments in Donegal are made through the eParking app, which was launched in 2020.
However, many people still do not know the app exists, according to Letterkenny Councillor Jimmy Kavanagh.
Cllr Kavanagh said that members of the public are calling for more credit card terminals and digital options to avoid the inconvenience of getting tickets from a machine, particularly when they do not have cash or during bad weather.
Cllr Kavanagh was told by the council that eight parking machines in the county can accept credit cards. The Council loses 25% of the income from these transactions due to fees and VAT. Last year, €18,809.52 was collected through credit card payments with €4,764.60 lost to fees.
Cllr Kavanagh agreed that the eParking app is the best solution.
“I think there could be more done to promote it,” Cllr Kavanagh told Tuesday’s meeting of the Letterkenny-Milford MD.
“You don’t have to worry about the weather or having coins available.”
The motion was seconded by Cllr Gerry McMonagle, who called for more signage to highlight the availability of the app.
Cllr McMonagle said that the lack of awareness has made some motorists take the risk in a pinch: “A lot of people don’t have coins anymore and they take the chance and do their business and hope the traffic warden hasn’t been around.
“I think signage is the way to go, a lot of people use phones as a way to pay now,” Cllr McMonagle said.
The council parking section is said to be very keen to promote the app as a cashless option to allow drivers to pay for parking in Donegal. There are currently 27,013 registered customers using the APP, and the Council intend to promote this further in 2024.
The App is available to download for free via Apple Store and Google Play.
More details are available on https://bookings.parkmagic.net/donegal
