Sarah Madden

And the people in the shop didn't know.

And I'm not really blaming them either.

Like, why would they know when we've enough to be worrying about as it is?

without trying to remember is it DL, is it DR, is it Burgundy, this section that I'm parking in.

Sorry, I'm getting very wound up about this now.

As well as existing in their multiples, Ireland's parking apps are reportedly unreliable.

They frequently crash or take a long time to process payments.

Some even charge monthly for use.

They're also not downloadable on all smartphones.

Nowhere is the issue of parking felt more keenly than in Galway City, where a legal dispute over a maintenance contract has rendered all of the city's 90 car park and on-street pay and display machines out of order since January 2025.

Independent councillor Donal Lyons says the switch to pay by phone and the council's parking app is negatively affecting business.

Far from rolling back parking apps, the UK government has developed a universal one that when rolled out fully will work everywhere across the country.

It's something Fionnuala Jones has taken to TikTok to campaign for here too.

Why does everywhere in Ireland require a different parking app?

Why can we not work on the same centralized one parking app?

Why are you making me download another app because I'm in a different county?

Why are we so inefficient?

That'd be a great idea, considering I'm always using it and I'm like, what code is it for here?

You know, or like what color zone is it?

It'd be good if it was everywhere, yeah.