As it stands, enforcement of illegal parking and illegal access to streets within Cork City and suburbs remains nothing short of appalling.
There are not enough traffic wardens employed by the city to allow a functioning enforcement system to work. Especially with the recent boundary extension.
There is also, in my opinion, currently not enough will nor ambition to tackle the scourge that is illegal and dangerous parking in the city and also in the suburbs. One can park without fear across footpaths and cycle lanes across the extended city with very little chance of getting a ticket.
Towing needs to be reintroduced, along with greater fines and penalties for those placing pedestrians and cyclists, other road users in danger by parking illegally.
The city should also look at trialling an app where the general public can photograph and easily report offences to the city parking enforcement department. This would especially help to cover areas where parking enforcement officers may not necessarily be able to monitor at all times.
The Patrick's Street bus priority hours (just over 3 hours per day) are nothing short of a running joke at this stage. Since implementation a number of years ago, I can count on one hand the number of times I have witnessed strict enforcement of the bus priority corridor. Everyday, I pass the street during bus priority hours, and can count tens of private vehicles brazenly abusing the street as simply as a rat-run, totally illegally, delaying hundreds if not thousands of commuters on buses. This needs strict enforcement and ideally automatic bus gates/retractable bollards with camera enforcement to record registration plates of vehicles abusing the street. Ideally, Patrick's Street should be a bus-only street (with cycles permitted also) 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. Private traffic should not be permitted to use the street at all, in my opinion. This would also help to reduce air pollution in the immediate city centre island, and create a much more pleasant environment on Cork's main shopping thoroughfare.
Wardens should also be rostered to work on Sundays (and more should be hired) - Sundays remain a total free-for-all in terms of illegal parking right across the city due to there being quite literally no enforcement at all on that day.
This is no way to run a modern city, something that Cork aspires to be. I certainly hope the above points will be noted with a view of improving them heading into the future.