Cavan hospital bags almost €230K in parking fees

Cavan General Hospital (CGH) took in, on average, close to €230,000 per year over the past five years in car parking fees.

On foot of a request by The Anglo-Celt for the information, the RCSI Hospital Group, of which CGH is part, revealed that in the five-years between 2013 and 2017, a total of €1,147,332 was taken in car parking fees.
CGH continues to have one of the lowest car parking charges in the country, regardless of length of visitor stay, with a flat rate of €3.
In the five-years the highest sum taken in was in 2013, at €242,788.
Respectively, in the years between 2014 and 2016, the hospital took in sums of €220,669, €231,053, and €212,520.
Last year CHG parking fees raised €240,302.
A spokesperson for the RCSI Hospital Group informed the Celt: “Car park income is used as part of the overall Hospital Budget to support the operation and day to day running costs of the Hospital.”
The figures emerge in the same week as Minister for State Finian McGrath defended hospital parking charges across the country in the face of a mounting campaign to reduce or waive parking charges at hospitals, in particular for outpatient appointments. It follows consistent pleas from the Irish Cancer Society to apply similar consideration for cancer treatment patients nationwide.
Representations were made on the matter in the Dáil last week by Sligo-Leitrim constituency Fianna Fáil TD, Marc MacSharry.
“People are not going to hospital for a day out and they are not going to meet somebody for coffee. They are going there because they are under the weather,” Deputy MacSharry stated with more than a hint of incredulity.
“They may have a serious illness, such as cancer, and are going in for outpatient treatment. There may be less serious conditions whereby, equally, people are going for treatment.
All of these people, or, in the case of children, their families, have contributed in taxation through the years to the annual HSE budget, which amounts to €14.5 billion this year,” said the local TD, who also represents part of West Cavan.
Responding, Minister for State Finian McGrath confirmed that the HSE has been asked to conduct a review of existing parking arrangements at hospitals.
Of the 40 hospital car parks owned and operated by hospitals, 10 do not charge for parking. Five hospitals do not have car parks, and four hospital car parks are owned and operated by private companies.
At Our Lady of Lourdes in Drogheda, which separately has one of the highest charges in the country at €4 per hour, up to a maximum of €40 per day, patients attending for certain cancer treatments at the oncology unit are afforded reduced rates for car parking.
Deputy McGrath stated that the review of hospital parking charges has already begun, though there was no timescale as to when the review would be completed.