Sinn Féin TD for Dublin West, Paul Donnelly has again echoed his parties call that hospital parking charges should be reduced and capped while the HSE puts in place a plan to “significantly reduce or abolish them without unintended consequences”.
Teachta Donnelly was astonished to see a response from a parliamentary question in relation to the profit received by pay parking at the local James Connolly memorial hospital in Dublin 15, “€ 596,456 in 2023 and € 327,103 to date in 2024.
The Dublin West deputy went on to say “this is a remarkable amount of money to profit from people who are ill and their families on a visit, I have been highlighting this issue as far back as 2015. Pay parking at hospitals should be capped now, with a view to abandoning them, there must also be proper public transport infrastructure in place to make sure all hospitals are properly and routinely serviced by public transport.
“The Government’s foot-dragging on capping hospital parking charges has left thousands of patients who regularly attend hospital seriously out of pocket. This particularly impacts people with cancer and other conditions that require frequent hospital attendance.
“Sinn Féin has continuously provided for reducing and capping charges in our Alternative Budget. We are committed to finding a workable solution for abolishing parking charges for patients and significantly reducing the cost of healthcare in any way possible.”