South Circular Road was Dublin's clamping hotspot last year
One of Dublin's longest thoroughfares – South Circular Road – has emerged as the capital’s top blackspot for illegal parking last year as overall clamping levels in the city fell by 6 per cent to just below 44,000 vehicles.
Figures released by Dublin City Council show the South Circular Road replaced Merrion Square South as the location for the most vehicles clamped by parking enforcement officials in 2025.
A total of 747 motorists had their vehicles clamped on the South Circular Road last year – up 70 on 2024 figures – with the vast majority penalised for either parking on a clearway or in an operational bus lane.
South Circular Road (SCR), which runs for around four kilometres between Portobello and Islandbridge, has consistently been among the top locations for vehicles being clamped in Dublin city, although it had not been ranked in the No 1 spot since 2018.
Enforcement is particularly high in the area of the SCR near the Dublin Mosque and National Stadium due to illegal parking in bus lanes and on footpaths.
The figures released under freedom of information legislation show the highest clamping level of vehicles on the SCR is on Saturdays, while the high-risk times for illegal parking are 7 to 8am and 4 to 5pm each day.
Despite the sharp rise in the number of vehicles clamped on the SCR, overall clamping rates across Dublin city last year dropped by almost 3,000 to 43,982 vehicles.
The figures show clamps were used on vehicles parked illegally at over 1,650 locations across the capital during 2025.
Motorists have to pay a fee of €125 to get a clamp released. However, if the release fee is not paid within 24 hours, vehicles are moved to the city pound and can only be recovered on payment of a removal fee of €250 plus a daily storage charge of €35 per day.
Council records show that more than a third of all motorists – approximately 15, 300 – had their vehicles clamped last year for failing to pay for their parking space.
The second most common offence was parking on a clearway followed by parking without a valid ticket.
A total of 517 vehicles were clamped for parking in a space reserved for disabled motorists without displaying a valid badge, while 60 were clamped for parking on a pedestrianised street.
The figures show that Wednesday was the most common day for vehicles getting clamped across the city – a total of 7,750.
Unsurprisingly, Sundays recorded the least number of vehicles clamped, at 2,825.
However, more vehicles were clamped on Saturdays (6,122) than on Mondays (5,739).
November was the month with the largest number of vehicles clamped – 4,280, while December had the least due to the extended Christmas holiday period with just 2,667.
The figures also reveal that more than a third of all vehicles are clamped during the morning peak traffic period of 7 to 10am, with numbers peaking between 8 and 9am at 5,958.
The highest number of vehicles clamped on a single day last year was on January 22nd, 2025, when 218 were detected parking illegally.
The latest data shows the top clamping blackspots in Dublin in 2024 – Merrion Square South – dropped to 6th position last year.
Two roads in Dublin 4 – Waterloo Road and Mespil Road – which regularly feature as prime locations for vehicles getting clamped occupied second and third place respectively in 2025.
New locations to enter the top 20 blackspots for clamping last year included Gardiner Street Lower, Summerhill, Berkeley Road, Sheriff Street Upper and Burlington Road.
In contrast, some other places dropped out of the top 20 rankings including Ranelagh – the main street through the suburb of the same name – which was the worst blackspot for clamping in 2023 and 7th in 2024.
Other areas where clamping levels decreased notably last year were Hatch Street Lower, Grantham Street, Baggot Street Lower and St Anthony’s Road.
While there was a decrease in overall clamping activity in 2025, income from parking fines rose by 6% over the same period to just over €960,000.
Parking fines were reintroduced in the capital in July 2021 to complement the council’s main parking enforcement method of clamping vehicles in order to address specific illegal parking offences such as parking on footpaths and bus lanes.
Figures provided by other local authorities in Dublin show that illegal parking in some areas surpasses the level of the problem in the city, with 1,140 motorists fined for a parking offence on Main Street in Lucan last year.
They accounted for 13 per cent of all parking fines issued by wardens in the administrative area of South Dublin County Council in 2025.
