Shoppers in Tallaght have slammed new car parking barriers that they claim have caused "chaos" at a popular shopping centre.
The Square Tallaght has recently introduced new car parking barriers and parking fees, with shoppers now having to pay €1 for three hours, with anything over costing €2 per hour. On Friday, there were chaotic scenes as drivers were stuck in the multi-storey car park.
Footage shared with Dublin Live shows long queues of cars trying to exit the centre's car park, with horns blaring in frustration at the slow process. One shopper told Dublin Live that there was a "27 minute backlog to get in and out" of the car park, and claimed that the new car parking barriers are to blame for the traffic chaos.
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He said: "Since they have gone in there has been nothing but trouble and traffic chaos - this was the tipping point on Friday. People actually had to get out of their cars, as it was backed up two levels and the whole of the ground level parking in and out was traffic jammed.
"This continued for roughly 15-20 minutes before the shopping centre management decided to automatically lift the barriers. Absolutely disgraceful as many tenants from the shopping centre lost revenue as customers had to turn around and leave the centre due to the traffic chaos."
Another shopper said that she was waiting over 30 minutes to exit the shopping centre. She told Dublin Live: "It was absolute madness at the Square over the weekend. On Friday I was waiting over 30 minutes just to exit the multi-storey carpark, it was a proper nightmare for everyone on a busy Friday afternoon.
"I think they really need to improve their system on how people get in and out of the car park. It's going to be bedlam at Christmas otherwise."
Just over two weeks ago, The Square rolled out a new ticketless, pay-parking system. According to The Square, the introduction of this new system ensures a "sustainable model, providing increased parking availability to centre customers" amid ongoing enhancements to the car park and centre facilities.
Staff Parking rates remain unchanged at €100 a year over two payments, working out at less than 30c a day, and the new ticketless system is also expected to save printing of over 4.5 million tickets a year, while new Fast Track Tap & Go option at barriers and App payment facility will provided added experience for customers. The Square Tallaght said at the time: "We appreciate this new system will take some time to get used to. We will have support measures in place to guide customers during this transition."
Dublin Live have contacted the Square for comment on the latest traffic delays.
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