Campaign for more disability parking bays in Bagenalstown
Stock image of disabled parking bay
A 79-YEAR-old Polio survivor has started a campaign to have more disabled parking bays installed in the centre Bagenalstown. While there are a few disabled parking bays around the town, Pat Ryan says that there are a number of essential services in the town that do not have any disabled parking bays close by, including the bank, credit union, exterior pass machine, Healy’s Chemist and Phelan’s chemist.
Pat says that for him and others who live with disabilities, it makes running errands more time consuming and can mean that they are late or miss appointments.
“On a wet day in Bagenalstown, you can have to take two or three trips around the town to find a suitable parking place,” Pat said.
In August 2025, Pat wrote to Carlow Co Council to raise the issue and asked if it would install more disabled parking bays around the town. In a letter seen by , which Pat received in reply from Pádraig O’Gorman, director of services at Carlow Co Council, it said that ‘a number of designated disabled parking spaces will be identified and installed in Bagenalstown, some of which will be later this year and the remainder in Q1 2026’.
However, Pat says that these parking bays have not materialised and instead there is now an ‘age friendly’ space in front of Healy’s Chemist. Pat takes issue with the age friendly spaces as you do not have to have a permit from the local council to park in them.
Pat also said that in recent years a number of disabled parking spaces had been removed, like the space outside the fire station in Bagenalstown, which was replaced by flower beds. There are also issues, he said, with people using the disabled parking bays when they do not have a disabled parking permit.
Fianna Fáil cllr Daniel Pender raised the issue on Pat’s behalf at the September meeting of Bagenalstown Municipal District.
“Are there any plans at the moment to introduce additional disability bays around Bagenalstown?” cllr Pender asked.
A representative from Carlow Co Council said they would have a look at the centre of town to see if there was an appropriate place to put more disability bays. It was pointed out that in order to give these bays legal effect, one would have to bring in parking by-laws for the whole town.
