Dublin City Council confirmed it received complaints last week after some of its on-street 'pay and display' parking machines failed to adjust the time when clocks went forward last Sunday morning.

The issue arose after an individual contacted this newspaper to complain that when he paid for two hours' parking, he only received one hour's worth because the time had not been updated on a ticketing machine on Eccles Street in north Dublin.

A spokeswoman for the council said it received seven complaints about similar issues last week.

"Of these seven complaints, four were verified as being correct, that is the machine did not automatically update for the change in the clocks going forward by one hour," she said.

It is not known how many of the 1,054 ticketing machines in the city centre experienced similar problems.

"All our pay and display machines are automatically updated when the clocks go forward or back," the spokeswoman said. "If there was a problem with a machine there is a freephone number for people to ring and explain the situation. If a call is received we will inform the clampers in the specific location where the problem is.

"If someone has put more money in than stated on the ticket we will inform the clampers not to clamp the car for that period of time."

The spokeswoman said the council was confident that its systems in relation to adjusting meters to cater for the time changes were "working satisfactorily".