Dublin's 'car parking standards' 'shall be generally regarded as the MAXIMUM parking provision and parking provision in excess of these maximum standards shall only be permitted in exceptional circumstances' (Dublin City Council, 16.38 Car Parking Standards).

The parking provision standards are set according to three zones: 'Parking Zone 1 is generally within an inner city location where transport corridors intersect, or that has significant interchange potential. Parking Zone 2 occurs alongside transport corridors and the remainder of the city falls under Parking Zone 3.'

Although the standards are said to be maximums, the relevant text also expresses concern about the risk of inadequate parking.

For example, 'Parking provision below the maximum may be permitted provided it does not impact negatively on the amenities of surrounding properties or areas and there is no potential negative impact on traffic safety.

In certain cases, parking can be restricted even below the prevailing maximum for that location: 'In addition, the planning authority may require the maximum number of car parking spaces specified in Table 16.1 to be further reduced where it is considered that the surrounding road network is not sufficient to cater for the volume of traffic likely to be generated by the proposed development.'

The documents do not mention minimums but there is some hint that parking minimums are applied in some cases at least. For example, 'Given the high accessibility by public transport to Zone 1 there shall be no minimum requirement for car parking in that zone', which seems to imply that there might be minimums in other zones or that the parking standards may be considered to be a target level of provision, not just a maximum.

In practice it appears that developers are expected to provide parking at rates at or below the maximums but to also justify themselves if providing substantially less parking than the standard.