LEAVE aside the fact that I, much to my annoyance, got a fine for parking on a double yellow line, the reality is that the elderly and those suffering from a physical disability are not catered for parking-wise in this town.

I don’t care what any of our officials or public representatives will say concerning the designated parking spaces all over the town, the fact of the matter is that there are not nearly enough of them – and then people do not pay adequate attention to them. Take Sunday Mass, either on a Saturday night or Sunday morning: the majority of those going to Mass are of advanced years. That definition may change, depending on where you find yourself on the age scale, but the next time you happen to go to Mass take a look around you and try to determine the aggregate age.

Let’s call a spade a spade: not too many young people go to Mass. I am not talking about teenagers, but rather people in their 20s, 30s or 40s. Even Church authorities will accept that there has been a huge shift in the age profile of those attending Mass on a weekly basis.

The age group I have spoken about do consider themselves practising Catholics, but not every week. Special events in their lives and that of their children will see a full turnout, but other than that it may be Christmas or Easter when they last attended.

However, elderly people are a whole different story. They have spent their entire lives attending on a weekly basis and no matter what they may think of recent Church scandals they will continue to do that until the day they die.

But most of those people suffer from some sort of mobility issue or other. The Irish weather fosters arthritis and that, coupled with a lifetime of physically demanding work by some, has created large number of people who simply cannot walk any great distance with ease. I know College Street was never designed to accommodate modern traffic and on-street parking has always been a major issue there during business hours, but on Saturday nights, Sundays and whenever there is a mid-week funeral there is a distinct shortage of parking spaces for those attending the Cathedral of the Assumption.

If anyone tells me that there is enough parking along Tullow Street, or at the car park at the former SuperValu supermarket, I would suggest they go along any of those times I have highlighted and see for themselves the large number of elderly people who are required to turn up way in advance of Mass time to guarantee themselves a parking space. Those who have not made it on time are then forced to cause traffic delays as their designated driver pulls up as close to the cathedral as possible to allow them to alight from their car within walking distance of the building.

That problem also extends around the town for designated disabled parking zones. Yes, some people do park in these areas, even when it is obvious they do not have a disability, but in general road users leave them vacant. But there are not enough of them.

Everything comes at a cost, but with the manner in which parking fines are dished out at present it shouldn’t be too difficult for the local authority to come up with the money to solve this problem.