Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
MEASURES TO INTRODUCE a cap on hospital car parking charges will be further delayed as the HSE redoes work on the issue that it already completed five years ago.
In 2018, the HSE undertook a national review of car parking charges at the request of the then-Minister for Health Simon Harris.
It recommended that hospitals should cap the maximum daily rate for parking at €10 and introduce concessions for regular patients and found that “funding of approximately €4.75m would be required to offset the reduction in income as a result of these changes”.
Reducing hospital parking costs became a key promise in the 2020 Programme for Government but no further progress was made, a Noteworthy investigation revealed last January, despite the HSE having submitted an implementation plan to the government in 2019.
Now, the HSE has told Noteworthy that it is to reestablish its original working group on hospital car parking charges.
A top official “is preparing to re-engage the original working group for the development of a national guidance document to support the development of local policies in relation to hospital car parking”, a HSE spokesperson told Noteworthy.
Noteworthy made the 2018 review public for the first time as part of our investigation.
We also revealed that a 2019 HSE implementation plan based on the review had been “superseded by the passage of time” according to the HSE who refused to release it to us.
The HSE also appears to be changing the scope of its 2018 recommendations.
Instead of introducing a national cap, the spokesperson said that a “‘one size fits all’ policy is not implementable across the acute hospital system” and that “it is envisaged the maximum daily rate would be set locally by each site with consideration given to average costs in the region”.
The Irish Cancer Society welcomed the fact that “the conversation around hospital car parking costs is opening up again”. “As [we have] been campaigning for the abolition of these charges for close to a decade, we would hope to see real progress on removing car parking charges,” they told Noteworthy.
Government needs to step up and reduce hospital parking fees as promised.
“Only this measure will work to alleviate some of the financial pressure which comes following a cancer diagnosis,” the spokesperson said.
The Department for Health did not comment on the fact that nothing was ever done with the 2018 recommendations when we put this to them.
A spokesperson reiterated the 2020 Programme for Government commitment “to introduce a maximum daily car parking charge for patients and visitors at all public hospitals, where possible, and to introduce flexible passes in all public hospitals for patients and their families”.
In relation to the new national guidance document, the HSE spokesperson told Noteworthy said that only some illnesses or conditions will qualify a patient for capped parking. They added that the HSE would take inflation and the cost of living crisis into account when issuing its guidance.
There are huge regional disparities in parking costs. According to the Irish Cancer Society, cancer patients in Dublin can pay up to five times more than those in rural areas.
“The public overwhelmingly supports the abolition of car parking costs,” a spokesperson for the society said, citing a public opinion survey they conducted in August.
The Department of Health did not respond directly when Noteworthy pointed out that these new HSE criteria appear to fall short of its 2020 promises. But a spokesperson said that the government appreciates “the financial challenge that can be faced by people in meeting these expenses, in particular where they are frequent users of hospital services”.
A cap of €10 per day for parking has been imposed by ministerial order at the new children’s hospital, for when it opens.
Everyone else will have to wait to learn more.
The HSE told Noteworthy that their working group would start on the new national guidance document early this year.
When asked in November to provide a timeline, the Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly gave the same answer he’s given for the past two years: “My Department and the HSE are currently examining the issue.”
By Alice Chambers of Noteworthy
Noteworthy is the crowdfunded investigative journalism platform from The Journal. This article was funded in its entirety by our investigative fund.
What’s next? We want to investigate why waiting lists for life-saving scans are so long. Help fund this work >>
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
I don’t understand how this could be delayed and not introduced overnight. Can the Journal do an investigation into where the money actually goes? Because I am taking a wild guess that simply revealing where the money goes will reveal why there is even a discussion around this completely reasonable and sensible measure that can easily be introduced.
@Lewis Armstrong: Private companies providing car parking at extortionate prices at the expense of sick people, their relatives, carers and visitors.
When you have a captive audience who have no other choice, you rip them off at your leisure. That’s the Irish way.
At TUH, it is cheaper to park at nearby Square or Aldi Shopping Centres.
Similarly at some other hospitals in Ireland.
@Lewis Armstrong: the will need to increase the parking charges to pay for the committee that will be formed to discuss reducing the parking charges
This government has achieved nothing
It’s bad enough that patients are charged but charging staff is cruel, exploitative and disrespectful. No wonder they can’t get staff to stay in the service.
@Seanfhear míshásta: why should public sector staff have a right to free car parking at their workplace? The rest of us who pay their wages have no such perk.
@Ciaran O’Mara: If there is no other way to get to work because you can’t afford to live near the hospital and there is no public transport option, parking is a necessity, not a ‘perk’. Parking is also not exclusive to the ‘public sector’. A place to park is no different from a laptop; they are both tools to facilitate access to work.
@Ciaran O’Mara: begrudgery at its worst
@Ciaran O’Mara: Staff parking was to be treated as a benefit in kind, & that seems to have been dropped.
My suggestion is to provide staff with designated trip travel passes, & use the car parks to build adequate a& e facilities.
Dragging their heels again when it should be a quick and simple thing to implement. Difference is that, they simply don’t want to make things better for people. It’s awful how they care so little for people here. :(
They can increase tax on petrol, booze and smokes at the drop of a hat but when it comes to giving ppl a break on something, it can take months maybe years or is swept under the carpet and forgotten about. Pôliticians really are vîle cratures.
OMG, Ireland – you couldn’t make it up.
Last year my child spent a large period of time in hospital due to a serious illness however being hit with astronomical parking charges day after day was despicable given the fact you had no choice but to there!
@Ould Stock: so why do they need to prepare to form working groups to develop policies for policies? It’s plain why this is needed.
Who is objecting to cutting hospital parking fees and who is profiting from the high parking fees?
@Ould Stock: absolutely immoral cost to families bearing the stress and other costs arising from a family illness. Many of the very wealthy investors in these car parks are also given free private parking on hospital grounds.!
Absolutely disgusting to be charging people the way they do. A flat rate of €8 would still bring them a good few bob. Robbed at every turn.
So they are “ preparing “ to form a committee to make a policy for the local hospitals to form a committee to formulate another policy for something that they’ve already agreed to do. Just do it for glods sake….it’s what is wrong with the hse/ government Too much bovine excretement and not enough action
no one should be charged a penny for visiting relatives or for an appointment at all.. parking a car.. hospital ground..
@Bass Boss: Ah sure everything should be free and taken out of general taxation…..I bet if it was free you would never get a spot.Then people like you would complain and wonder why.
Can we delay the carbon taxes aswell, oh no that will be fast tracked,
Who is profiting from high hospital car park fees? Who is objecting to lowering them?
These are the questions that need to be asked
Just park the car inside …. 5 spots warm and dry, birra RTÉ… More comfortable than dying in the hallway on a plastic school chair waiting for the hospital to be closed down….
At least 1 private hospital i know has a cap on parking, once the amount is reached it stays as max even if you park there a few days
Hospital parking fees should be capped at ZERO. Profiteering off of the misery of patients and their families and friends is immoral and inexcusable.
Surprise Surprise. More studies needed when it comes to helping the vulnerable and the sick. Its the same implementing anything that will help Joe public dalay dalay delay. Yet emergency economic measures and business supports implemented over night. I will wager Leinster house parking is free and remains available for free when they are no longer in the dail.
have your say