Hard-pressed motorists anxious to avoid being clamped paid out more than €2m a month in "pay and display" and related parking charges to Dublin city council last year, new figures obtained by the Sunday Tribune show.

The figures, which suggest that paid parking has become a valuable "cash cow" for the council, are in addition to some €4.8m which it received from clamping during 2009.

The number of vehicles clamped or towed in Dublin city also hit a six-year high last year, with almost 61,000 motorists falling foul of the city's clampers.

Meanwhile the council has steadily increased the number of income-generating "pay and display" ticketing machines which it operates.

There are currently 1,063 such machines in place in city centre and suburban areas of Dublin. This compares with approximately 1,025 machines in 2009 – and 960 in 2007.

A spokeswoman for the council confirmed that during 2009, it generated a total of €26.8m in income from "pay and display" charges, a figure which includes payments for residential parking permits.

Due to reduced "parking activity" in Dublin city centre, this represented a 6% decrease in the amount of pay and display income which it received in 2008, when some €28.6m was received.

Between 2008 and 2009, it also received more than €9.5m in clamping income, although this is offset by the significant costs associated with running clamping and other parking enforcement operations.

The council spokeswoman denied that the money generated from "pay and display" charges is simply a revenue generating measure.

"The priority for enforcement is keeping bus lanes and clearways free, removing dangerously parked vehicles, vehicles causing obstruction and then pay and display offences," she said.

"The parking regime is a demand management tool, designed to deter all day commuter parking, thereby encouraging the use of public transport and also to allow for a regular turnover of parking spaces to facilitate shoppers and short term business parking.

"Income from parking is used to part fund the activities of the roads and traffic department."

However, it remains unclear how much of the income is used to subsidise other areas of council activities which would otherwise have been funded directly by the council rather than indirectly through "pay and display" income from motorists who are anxious to avoid being clamped.

The new figures come as Fine Gael announced plans to publish legislation which would require the clamping industry to be licensed. This follows ongoing concerns that unscrupulous clampers are exploiting motorists by being overzealous in their approach.

The new Bill would also restrict the ability of parking control firms to clamp vehicles on private property.

The group which represents clampers, the Irish Parking Association, has called for it to be allowed have access to the National Vehicle Driver File (NVDF), maintained by the Department of Transport. If it gets access to this file, the IPA says the industry could issue fines instead of clamping vehicles, as vehicle owners could be pursued for fines and costs in civil courts.