Snazzy new system for parking tickets

November 1994

‘Do the parking lotto!’ is the cry from Wexford Corporation as a new scratch card system of parking discs is introduced, along with Ireland’s first-ever electronic notebooks for traffic wardens.

From Monday next, the punchcard disc will be replaced by the snazzier scratch card, which will retail at the same price of 30p in all the usual outlets. Instead of punching holes, car owners taking a parking spot will buy a scratch card and scratch off the date and time they arrived.

Also on Monday next, a new computerised system comes into operation, providing traffic wardens with the first hand-held terminals in Ireland. Out will go the little leather-bound notebooks, and in will come electronic devices into which the town’s wardens can enter car registrations, locations of offences, etc.

The new system will allow for a more efficient administration of the town’s parking disc operation and reduce the possibility of errors, according to Borough accountant, Kieran O’Brien.

It’s not all computers up at the Corpo, however. Adding another human face to traffic control in Wexford from next week onwards will be the county’s first woman traffic warden, Genevieve Moynihan, bringing the total in town to four.