FIRST it was a smoking ban, then soaring drink prices. Now there’s another reason to stay out of the pub. Dublin hostelries are charging customers to use their car parks.

Several pubs have brought in private companies to run pay-and-display ticket systems and cars not displaying valid tickets will be clamped.

Consumer representatives have accused publicans of being opportunistic and penalising teetotallers. Dermott Jewell, of the Consumers’ Association of Ireland, said: “It is opportunism at its most extreme and adds to the cost of a night out. We can only hope customers will resist it.”

Several of the car parks are managed by Central Parking Systems (CPS), the parent company of Control Plus, which ran the clamping service for Dublin city council until 2004. Customers are being charged €1.50 an hour to park and €85 to have a clamp released if they choose not to pay the charge.

“It’s all done as a control measure,” said Neil Cunningham of CPS. “A lot of these car parks were uncontrolled and being abused. They are located in high-demand areas and were being used by people doing business in the area, not necessarily using the premises.”

Many of the pubs now charging for parking are on the south side of Dublin; none were willing to discuss the practice. They include Brady’s in Terenure and the Rathfarnham House, which is charging customers €1.50 an hour from 9.30am-9.30pm and €3 after 9.30pm.

On the north side, The Brian Boru in Glasnevin operates a pay-and-display system.

“There is good money in parking,” said David Cullen, chief executive of Euro Car Parks, which manages facilities for supermarkets, hospitals and train stations.

“Pubs generally have car parks that are empty during the day when workers or shoppers need them, so they can turn them into a moneymaker. You put in a couple of machines and get somebody to enforce it. You could easily walk away with €80,000-a-year profit.”

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