Limerick is to get the State's first car park that will allow customers to avoid using the traditional ticket and cash system.
The car park will instead use number-plate recognition technology to track users much in the same way as the eToll system plans to operate on the State's motorway network.
Limerick-based company ParkMagic will provide the system, initially in the Steamboat Quay Multi-Storey Car Park this year, and next year in a number of car parks owned by Euro Car Parks around the country. The car parks will also continue to operate the cash system.
To use the new service, customers will first have to register their car registration number and open an account with ParkMagic. A camera at the entrance of the car park will read the registration and lift the barriers automatically on the way in.
On exiting, another camera will read the registration number, lift the exit barrier and calculate the amount of money owed by the motorist.
The hourly charge will then be deducted from the motorist's account.
Number-plate recognition technology has already been adopted by the Garda. Earlier this year the force decided to get more than 50 number plate recognition systems to detect stolen cars and clamp down on untaxed and speeding vehicles.
The decision to buy them followed a successful pilot of the technology in four Garda divisions last year. The system operates by downloading the details of a vehicle that is stolen or has not been taxed from the Garda's Pulse computer database.
A Garda vehicle fitted with two small in-car infrared cameras - one at the front and the other at the rear - then scans number plates on passing cars. When an offending vehicle passes, its registration is scanned by the recognition system which alerts the Garda, allowing them to stop the motorist.
Local authorities have also been using number plate recognition systems to track the movement of cars for statistical purposes. It emerged in April, for example, that South Dublin County Council has 28 cameras on the N4, N7 and N81 snapping registration plates to find out where vehicles are coming from and going to every day. The technology will also be used on the M50 when barrier-free tolling is introduced.
Earlier ParkMagic won the contract to provide a mobile parking payment system for the US city of Chicago and said it was doubling its workforce to 30 on the back of the deal. This system allows users, who have signed up to the scheme, pay for their on-street parking using their mobile phone.
