Family doctors have warned they may have to abandon house calls in Dublin's inner city unless their vehicles can be exempted from the corporation's wheel clampers.
While ambulances and fire brigade vehicles were exempt from clamping, the sole concession for doctors was priority in having clamps removed once they pay the £65 penalty, Dr Eugene O'Connor, a GP's subcommittee member of the Irish Medical Organisation, said.
"Unless some leeway is given on this it sounds the death knell for house calls in inner city areas," he said.
Dr O'Connor will be part of an IMO delegation due to meet Department of the Environment officials next month, which will raise clamping and parking for doctors.
A Department of the Environment spokesman said the traffic regulations had never included exemptions for doctors, although some traffic wardens might have overlooked illegally parked vehicles which displayed the doctor on call sign.