€11.3 million collected in parking charges at Waterford Regional since 2012 - Aontú

On foot of car parking and clamping receipts, details of which were recently obtained by Aontú from the HSE, Aontú representative for Dungarvan LEA, Vicky Wall, urges all TDs in the region to support her party’s new Hospital Car Parking Charges Bill. The figures released to Aontu leader Peadar Toibin TD, following a parliamentary question, show that hospital car parks have pulled in literally millions of euro in receipts.

Since 2012, hospital car parks across the country took in a little over €100 million in receipts car parking and clamping charges. At Waterford Regional Hospital Ardkeen, more than €11.3 million has been collected in parking charges in that period.

The receipts for 2020 would have been higher, bringing the total since 2012 to about €12m for Ardkeen, were it not for the suspension nationally of non-Covid healthcare services for most of 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“On a human level, what percentage of those parking charges are from cancer patients and other patients with serious long-term illnesses? What percentage of those charges come from seriously ill individuals struggling already to meet the costs of their treatment?,” asked an Aontu spokesperson.

“The government should be doing more to alleviate unnecessary burdens (such as car parking charges) for patients, some of whom are fighting for their very lives. The very last thing a patient should have to worry about is “Can I afford parking whilst I receive treatment?”

Aontú representative Vicky Wall, said: “Our Aontú Bill provides for an entitlement to free parking for up to three hours in the carpark of a public hospital, where an occupant of the vehicle (either the driver or a passenger) is attending the hospital to receive out-patient services.

“We urge all TDs of other parties to support the Aontú Bill, and to help move the Bill through the Dáil as quickly as possible. Before the last election Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin and Labour promised either to cap hospital car parking charges or to provide free parking for patients, yet neither of these has happened. Patients cannot wait for the government to get it together to finally resolve this.

“The Irish Cancer Society has also campaigned for a cut in hospital car parking charges. Paying car parking charges when you are attending outpatient services, or emergency services, at your local hospital is an additional and unnecessary stress and pressure for many people to deal with. These charges are especially financially hard on patients such as cancer patients or patients who are critically ill who may have to return regularly for hospital treatment.

“This Bill offers immediate relief and support to those patients; it needs to be passed,” she stated.