Connolly Hospital collected almost half a million euro in parking charges in eight months, prompting calls for a national review to deliver relief for patients and their families.
Figures obtained by Dublin West TD Roderic O’Gorman show the Blanchardstown hospital received €482,000 from parking charges between January and August 2026.
That compares with €568,000 collected during the whole of 2025.
If income continued at the same monthly average for the remaining four months, the hospital would collect approximately €723,000 this year, an increase of around 27 per cent.
The projection relates to the total money collected and does not establish that individual parking charges have increased.
O’Gorman, who obtained the figures through a question to the HSE, said the sums highlighted the financial burden facing people attending hospital and relatives visiting or accompanying them.
“If this level of parking charge collection continues for the rest of the year it will mean that Connolly could bring in over €700,000,” he said.
“That’s a lot of money that patients and their families are paying out.”
The Green Party TD welcomed a national review of hospital parking charges but warned that recommendations must be followed by action.
He pointed to a previous review in 2018, which sought a common approach to charges across hospitals, and said too little had been done to implement its findings.
“The good news is that the HSE are now undertaking a review of hospital charges, not just in Connolly, but all over the country,” he said.
“The bad news is that the HSE did a similar review in 2018, which set out recommendations for a common approach to parking charges across all hospitals. Regrettably, very few of those recommendations were actually implemented.”
The HSE has acknowledged that the earlier recommendations were not fully implemented.
Appearing before the Public Accounts Committee on September 24, HSE chief executive Anne O’Connor said hospitals had been instructed to implement the recommendations while a group examined what further changes were needed.
She said an instruction had issued in August directing hospitals to bring maximum daily parking charges back to €10.
The HSE also told the committee that the earlier recommendations included concessions for people who needed to attend hospital regularly.
O’Gorman said patients with cancer and other chronic conditions could face repeated parking bills over the course of their treatment.As chairperson of the Cross Party Oireachtas Group on Cancer, he said he was aware of how substantial those costs could become.
“We can’t let that happen again,” he said of the failure to implement earlier recommendations.
“I’ll keep pushing the Minister for Health to make sure that patients and their families aren’t hit by unfair parking charges across all our hospitals.”
The Connolly figures put its average monthly parking income at €60,250 for the first eight months of 2026, compared with approximately €47,333 across 2025.
Whether the final annual total reaches the projected €723,000 will depend on receipts during the remaining four months.