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Ever heard of a county council deciding on the number of parking fines that should be doled out? Well now you have. That's exactly what Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council are doing.

The boys in the council say that at least 32,400 fines should be doled out every year to satisfy their revenue needs.

The job of actually policing parking on the mean streets of Dún Laoghaire is farmed out to a private company and as part of the tendering process the council demands that the quota be met.

A local businessman, Padraic Hanley, says the target is "totally and utterly bizarre" and anti-business. The owner of Ouzos Bar Grill has called on the council to row back on the decision.

The most recent tender for the service, published in June, calls on the successful company to hand out 2,700 tickets a month.

Failure to reach the target will apparently lead to hefty fines for the company. The council plans to dock them as much as €1,200 per 100 parking tickets.

Hanley says the level of enforcement is draconian. A spokesperson for the council told the Irish Times: "The baseline performance target of 2,700 valid parking fines per month represents a reduction in the level of enforcement from the current position, and there is no financial incentive for the successful tenderer to exceed the target."