Parking at one of Dublin's busiest hospitals could set you back almost €50 per day.
Leaving your car in St Michael's Hospital in Dun Laoghaire costs €48 for a 24-hour stint, €1,344 for a month and a whopping €16,008 for the year.
The hospital's website does state that there is alternative parking in nearby shopping centre car parks but these spaces are often not suitable for visitors.
Figures obtained by The Irish Mirror under the Freedom of Information Act found that Cork University Hospital and 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.
