Car park fees in one Irish hospital could set you back more than €300 a week, the Irish Mirror can reveal.
Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act showed in St Michael’s Hospital in Dun Laoghaire, Dublin, a 24-hour stint could see you forking out €48.
If you used the facility seven days a week to visit a patient, it would see you spend €336, €1,344 for a month or €16,008 for the year.
Its website does say there is alternative parking available at nearby shopping centre car parks but in some situations these may not be suitable for the visit.
Elsewhere, Cork University Hospital, Dublin hospitals St James’s and St Vincent’s charge almost €100 per week to use their on-site parking facilities.
And CUH and St Vincent’s also top the list of fees raked in last year. Some offer passes granted on a case by case basis, including St Luke’s Oncology Unit in Beaumont, University Hospital Limerick and Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown, Dublin.
Others, like Crumlin Children’s Hospital, charge €36 per week but will then charge €10 per week thereafter for the family of sick kids.
Cavan/Monaghan Hospital has a single flat fare of just €3 while St Columcilles in Loughlinstown will grant a week pass for just €20.
The figures have been slammed by Sinn Fein’s Louise O’Reilly, who revealed last month the total amounts hospital car parks took in during 2017 in the Dail.
She told the Irish Mirror: “It is a tax on sick people essentially.
“Visitors play such an important role in helping people get better.
“And nobody should miss out just because you only had a fiver in your pocket and could only pay for short time parking because you wanted to buy your friend or family member a coffee and a magazine on the way up.
“And for children, parents may have to leave their job to care for a sick child and cut their income as a result.
“You can’t take a sick child on a bus or the Luas, you have to drive them.
“Forcing people to pay these sums at a time where they’re earning the least just doesn’t add up.
"And there are day passes and other things you can apply for but you have to prove that you need them because they come out of the hardship fund.
“For patients it’s further humiliation when they’re already not well, they don’t want to have to deal with that.”
In Dublin city most hospitals advise patients and their family and friends to use on-street parking where possible, which varies in price by location.
And Ms O’Reilly suggested we should strive for a similar plan to Scotland, where they phased car park fees out over a decade.
She said: “They did it gradually and made sure to watch anyone who was taking advantage of it.
“Scotland is a good model because it’s a similar size to Ireland and their hospital car parks were run by a mixture of private companies and the hospitals themselves. We will be putting forward this idea in the Dail.”
Hospitals contacted did not respond to a request for comment.
