A Department of Finance suggestion that congestion charges would be more efficient and equitable in achieving environmental goals compared to a workplace car parking levy has been questioned by a senior Trinity College Dublin academic focused on transport.Legislation for a parking levy was introduced in 2008, but it was never implemented. The levy would charge employees for the use of parking facilities provided by their employer in designated urban areas. The original idea was that it might first apply to Dublin City Centre.There has been little public pressure or even mention of implementing a parking levy except from the Climate Change Advisory Council, the NTAs Greater Dublin Area Transport Plan which was published a number of years ago, and a promise to investigate the issue further in the Governments traffic demand management policy.Political sources contacted for this article were unaware of any political pressure for a levy at this time and mentioned the low likelihood of such a measure being advanced so close to the general election next year. The Department of Finance said: A Car Parking Levy would be difficult and time-consuming to implement in Ireland and would require further periods of planning, expert advice and public consultations, for instance, it took twelve years (2000-2012) of consultation and planning before the WPL in Nottingham was implemented and the smaller city of Oxford cite a minimum of three years of such work prior to implementation.Speaking on Newstalk last week, Brian Caulfield, Professor at the School of Engineering at Trinity College Dublin, said: Congestion charges are one of the ways to go. The document you mentioned there by the Department of Finance kind of puts a lot of effort into looking at the Workplace Parking Levy as a solution. How that would work is a 200 per year charge on people who have a parking space at work.They say thats unequable and its not feasible to introduce. They also say in the same report that theres 705 parking spaces paid for by the taxpayer at cost of almost 1m, so thats about 13,000 per parking space, and yet they say that its difficult to bring in this 200 charge [for a parking levy], he said.Caulfield said: Bringing in a congestion charge would mean thousands of cameras around the city at great expense, a lot of planning, and it would take a lot longer than the parking levy to be introduced.Newstalk presenter Ciara Kelly asked how much it might be influenced by the Department of Finance are among those with some of the car parking spaces which it would be inequitable to put the levy on. She also asked if Caulfield was sceptical of the Departments bona fides.Caulfield said that, as an academic, he has to remain objective. When Kelly rephrased and asked if the reports stance was an unusual position to take, Caulfield said, It is an unusual position to take.He explains: They go to great pains to suggest that the parking levy is something we shouldnt introduce, but yet congestion charges are mentioned and theres very little talk of the possible issues with it, he said. Caulfield said that the same is the case for weight-based charges for cars, which does not go into any details on the possible issues, with very little on equability or public acceptability. He said that higher rates of parking are proven to help shift people to public transport.Congestion charges are often debated but have been ruled out in the short term by the Minister of Transport, Eamon Ryan, who said a number of times that public transport would have to be improved first, hinting at pushing the charges to at least after major rail upgrades were finished in Dublin.Minister Ryans position on congestion charges is at least partly supported by a 2022 report by the OECD for the Climate Change Advisory Council and the Department of Transport reports.On congestion charges, the OECD report said that Complementary public transport improvements were implemented [in other cities] before the charges took effect, helping to gain acceptance of the innovation. The Five Cities Study on demand management of our transport network said that There will be a lead in time required to plan and ensure acceptability of the measure, although that 2021 report also said that congestion charges could be in place by 2025. The more recently published Government traffic demand policy, Moving Together: A Strategic Approach to the Improved Efficiency of the Transport System in Ireland, outlines that congestion charges would be left up to local councils but that the legal framework would be looked at. In relation to the Workplace Parking Levy, it said, It is intended to review existing legislative provisions in this area.It suggested that other alternatives to the workplace levy are also possible, including removing the income taxbenefit in kind exemption for employee car parking or that free parking at work could continue to be tax-exempt only if commuters who do not drive to work are offered a benefit of equivalent value.It added: In summary, it is recommended to review the provision in the Finance Act, provide an update in context of the objectives of this Strategy and bring forward recommendations as part of the budgetary process. The Review will also evaluate a wider set of options to disincentivise workplace parking including provision of cash alternative to parking BIK.