There have been many changes made to how parking is paid for on the streets of Galway which has caused some confusion for visitors heading into the City Centre as well as debate amongst local Councillors.
The existing Pay and Display machines that serve parking on-street had started to age to the point where card payments could no longer be taken. This meant that if a customer did not have cash or coins, they would either have to download the local council app or head to a local participating store and make payment in there. The communication of this change did lead to confusion amongst motorists with some being left unable to pay. They either then received a fine or they left the city centre due to fear of getting a fine for non-payment.
Q-Park operates 2 parking facilities comprising over 1000 spaces in Galway City Centre and they pride themselves on offering simple yet seamless parking experience for all customers. Each car park is equipped with the latest technology in parking equipment and their regularly maintained pay machines take payment with cash and coins as well as debit or credit cards. However, when it comes to parking technology creating the smoothest customer journey possible, Q-Park do go the extra mile. Their futuristic self-developed PaSS ANPR system opens up different methods of customer payment and car park access.
In 2025 over 100,000 of Ireland’s motorists pre-booked parking on the Q-Park website. In doing they so they made their payment in advance but also entered their number plate when completing their booking. Upon arrival the cameras read the number plate and the barrier opens automatically and upon departure the customer drives straight to the exit where again the barrier raises allowing them to head out of the facility. There is no need throughout their stay for the customer to take a ticket on entry or even visit a pay machine reducing the worry about potentially losing the ticket or having to queue up to make payment. If a customer overstays their booked times they are simply billed automatically to the card used to make the booking.
For those who are not sure in advance of when they want to park then another excellent option that Q-Park offer is their Mobile app. On the app, customers can activate a feature called Q-Park Go simply by adding their payment card and number plate. Following this, Q-Park Go customers can access Q-Park facilities across Ireland and 6 countries in Europe seamlessly with ANPR and automatic payments upon departure. The benefits are similar to pre-booking online except there is total flexibility for the motorists to enjoy their visit to Galway. In Ireland there are over 45,000 users of the Q-Park app making it one of the countries most popular parking apps. Q-Park do also connect into other third party apps to allow the same seamless access to other user groups. Apps such as EasyTrip, used for toll road payments, and PayZone, used for on-street parking payments, can also access Q-Park facilities once the customers have opted in for Autopay with their provider. These apps can charge a transaction fee on top of the parking tariff of the car park. The Q-Park app does not charge transaction fees.
As well as cutting edge technology, Q-Park are also transforming their parking facilities into centres of sustainability, they recently designated their Q-Park Hynes Yard car park in Galway as a Mobility Hub as part of their strategy to redefine city centre parking in Europe. The aim is to evolve parking facilities to become vital instruments to help realise urban accessibility, sustainability and liveability. Q‑Park defines a Mobility Hub as a facility that delivers four essential components; Parking, Charging, Booking and Sharing. All of these are offered at this facility, there are 8 EV Charging Points to help encourage more green miles from Galway’s motorists. Pre-booking helps reduce urban search traffic as a customer who has booked parking heads straight to the car park rather than circling the roads trying to find a space. Sharing is defined as allowing customers to choose an alternative mode of onward travel. The facility’s proximity to the train station, along with an on‑site Avis Budget Rent a Car branch and GoCar Car Sharing offering electric vehicles, makes it an ideal location for this.
Alastair McDonald, Head of Commercial & Operations at Q-Park Ireland commented “At Q‑Park, we put our customers at the heart of everything we do. That means offering a wide range of convenient payment options and focusing on delivering the services people genuinely want. Our digital innovations are designed to make parking simpler and more seamless, and we’re always keen to share our mobility expertise with local partners and stakeholders.”
About Q-Park
Q-Park is a leading off-street parking infrastructure owner and operator with well-managed commercial parking facilities across seven western European countries. We operate off-street parking spaces we own, have under concession or with long-term lease contracts from public and private landlords. We focus on off-street purpose-built parking facilities at strategic locations. We operate more than 5,300 parking facilities comprising over 1 million parking spaces in the Netherlands, Germany, France, Belgium, United Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark. Based on publicly available industry data for our competitors, we estimate that we are a top three player, based on the estimated off-street revenues, in all the countries in which we operate. Q-Park also has numerous mobility hubs which provide access to a variety of mobility solutions. We house and support a range of activities from last mile logistics, electric vehicle charging, micromobility and car sharing services which help support urban accessibility, sustainability and liveability.
