Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."

I am delighted to be able to bring this important Bill on hospital car parking charges to the Dáil on Second Stage. Aontú has been developing this Bill for a long time. We want to see it pass through the Oireachtas as fast as possible. Car parking charges are having a critical effect on families across the country. Anybody who has had a diagnosis of cancer, heart disease, stroke, mental health issues or any serious, life-threatening illness will know that those diagnoses are life-shattering. They affect the individuals who are diagnosed and their families. Most people do not know that those diagnoses also have the effect of placing massive additional costs on those families. Information provided by the Irish Cancer Society estimates that there are between €800 and €1,200 in additional costs for a patient who is diagnosed with cancer. Those costs could include travel to and from hospitals, extra medical costs, staying in bed and breakfast accommodation or hotels, or childcare costs experienced by the patients. People who have serious illnesses suffer a reduction in their level of income. On average, a person who has cancer will see a fall in income of €1,400 a month. If the two are added, there is typically a gap of €2,200 for a person who has had a serious health issue. It is bad enough to be told that one has a life-threatening illness but to also be told that one's family will be put into serious financial difficulty is difficult.

Over the years, in an effort to fill their funding gap because the Government is not funding them properly, hospitals across the country have searched for ways to raise money. One way that they have done that is by introducing car parking fees. Almost every hospital in the country has car parking fees. One or two thankfully have special deals for patients.

What this has meant, however, is that there are big additional costs on families. It is estimated that a person who has cancer pays €60 a month in car parking fees. That adds up to €700 a year for that person. I know of people who go to the housing estate next to the hospital to park the car and walk, sometimes with great difficulty, to the hospital to be seen. Of course, that creates major problems in those housing estates in that they are constantly dealing with significant traffic and cars parked there. We know that some hospitals, such as Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, charge up to €25 a day for car parking. We know from parliamentary questions I have tabled that €12 million in car parking fees was collected in 2020. Now, 2020 was not a normal hospital year because most of the hospital services were closed because of Covid, but that is an incredible figure. We also know that on every single day in 2017, €60,000 was collected through car parking fees in public hospitals.

We in Aontú believe wholeheartedly that the public health service should be funded through taxation. From the late 1700s, progressive taxation has been worked out as the best way to raise funds to pay for public services. Why? The more you earn and the better your ability to pay, the more you pay. However, what we have in car parking charges is, in effect, a tax on illness. What such charges say is that the more ill you are, the more you will pay; the less you earn, the more you will pay; and the higher your health costs are, the more you will pay. That is what is happening throughout this country, and it is the bane of so many people's lives. It is incredible that a Bill such as this, which deals with only about €12 million or €20 million of State funding in a health service that is sucking up €21 billion, would have such an effect on the psyche of people across the country. I ask that the Government look closely at the Bill and make sure it is serious about pushing it through.

As the Minister of State can imagine, if people go to chemotherapy or radiotherapy or get scans of their skin for skin cancer regularly, or if they need MRI scans because they have had strokes, the cost of all that adds up and puts pressure on people. These are significant costs on the people who can least afford them. My frustration in this regard is that we have had political promises on this issue to beat the band for years. The great Simon Harris carried out a review of hospital car parking charges in 2018. A review is the staple diet of governments that do not want to do anything. It is funny - I think the best way a government can say no is actually to say yes and then just to carry out a review and to let nothing happen. For ten years I have been in the Dáil. I go out when there is a campaign at the gates of Leinster House and see Government Deputies put their arms around campaigners, smile for the photographs, pledge support and come in here and spend five years doing nothing about whatever that serious issue is. It is a very cynical way in which politics is delivered in Ireland, unfortunately. The report Deputy Harris had commissioned has not even been published yet. There are hospitals that have reduced the costs for their patients, but nobody can find out the exact information. There is no portal on which to see which hospitals are involved and what the charges involved are. One could go in and out of a hospital 20 times a year and not know that it has a special deal on hospital charges for people who are very sick.

We have to get to grips with this issue. Every single political party represented in this Chamber stated in its manifesto for the 2020 general election that it would get rid of hospital parking charges. Now is the time to let that happen. I have listened to radio reports on the Bill today and it is reported that the Government will not stop it from progressing. However, will the Government push it through or simply say it has its own plans in the programme for Government that it will get around to implementing some sunny day? Will that be the Minister of State's answer, or can the Government not use this vehicle, which very clearly works out a solution? This has been worked out with stakeholders and patient advocates, including the Irish Cancer Society.

Put simply, the Bill seeks free parking for the first three hours of an outpatient appointment. Incredibly, in University Hospital Galway there is 20 minutes free parking. Does the Minister of State know what people do? They leave the waiting room after 20 minutes, go down to the car park, drive their car around and re-park it for another 20 minutes. That is the system that is running in probably the biggest hospital close to where the Minister of State lives. Put simply, this Bill seeks three hours of free parking, which would normally cover most people's outpatient appointments if they are very ill. The reason I have limited it to three hours is that I do not want someone from the other side saying that if carte blanchefree parking is given to everybody, nobody will be able to manage their car parks because people will be parking their cars and going off shopping down the town after their hospital appointments. That will not happen in this situation. There is minimal cost involved. The Bill would allow hospitals to manage their car parks to make sure that they are not overused and that real people with real illnesses can still access them. It would allow the person driving the car or the patient free parking for those three hours. The Bill also allows for a system whereby if a hospital wants to reduce parking charges further or to widen its approach, it will be allowed to do so, and I would wholeheartedly encourage hospitals to do so. I would have gone that far in the Bill, but even pushing this door can be difficult at times.

This is a very simple Bill. It will make a significant difference to the financial implications of serious illness. It will pass Second Stage, and I thank the Government for at least not opposing it. It will get to Committee Stage soon. Sometimes a Bill languishes on Committee Stage for a while because it may not be a certain party's Bill. On this issue, however, can we not just be blind to party politics and the differences that exist between us, recognise that this is a simple solution to a serious problem and all get behind it? The frustration I have heard from people making phone calls and sending emails and WhatsApp messages to me about this Bill over the past week is real. I implore the Government to support the Bill.

Is Bille simplí é seo. Tabharfaidh sé faoiseamh iontach do dhaoine atá fíor-tinn agus atá ag fulaingt mar gheall ar easpa airgid toisc nach bhfuil siad in ann é a fháil mar thuarastal a thuilleadh agus toisc go bhfuil siad ag caitheamh i bhfad níos mó airgid ar go leor rudaí eile. Cabhróidh an Bille seo leo. Taispeánann an t-eolas atá faighte agam ón Irish Cancer Society go soiléir go mbíonn costais i bhfad níos airde ag daoine sa tír seo atá an-tinn le hailse, taom croí, stróc nó rud cosúil leis sin. Bíonn costais bhreise gur fiú €800 sa mhí ar a laghad iad acu. Bíonn titim tuillimh de thimpeall €1,200 sa mhí acu freisin. De bharr sin, tá siad i ngéarchéim mar gheall ar an méid airgid atá sa chlann. Tá sé deacair go leor galar a throid ach, nuair atá tú ag déileáil le fadhb airgeadais freisin, tá sé uafásach deacair.

Is é cuspóir an Bhille seo ná faoiseamh a thabhairt do na daoine sin. Cosnaíonn sé €60 gach uile mhí do dhaoine atá tinn chun déileáil leis na táillí seo. Is ionann é sin agus €700 sa bhliain. Tá sé sin iomarcach agus caithfidh an tAire Stáit é sin a admháil. Impím air a thacaíocht iomlán a thabhairt don Bhille seo agus gan a rá go ligfear tríd an Dáil é ach ansin é a fhágáil sa phróiseas reachtaíochta. Ba chóir dó a thacaíocht iomlán a thabhairt don Bhille.

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