I recently discovered through a question I submitted to the HSE that Connolly Hospital has collected a significant amount in car parking charges in the first 8 months of 2026.
Connolly Hospital has earned €482,000 in the first eight months of 2026 from car parking charges, compared to €568,000 in all of 2025. If the same rate of charges continues for the rest of 2026, they could bring in over €700,000 — a 27% increase.
As Chairperson of the Oireachtas Group on Cancer, I understand how these hospital charges can impact patients, especially those with cancer or chronic conditions, and their families.
Thankfully, the HSE are now beginning to review hospital charges, both in Connolly and across the country, such as car park charges.
However, the HSE conducted a similar review in 2018. This created recommendations for a common approach to car parking charges across all hospitals, but very few were implemented. We can’t let this happen again.
I am going to continue to pursue this issue to ensure patients and their families are not affected by unfair parking charges across all of our hospitals.