Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta Tóibín as an reachtaíocht seo a chur os ár gcomhair. Tá sé tábhachtach go bhfuil sé os ár gcomhair. Cuireann sé leis an mbrú atá ar an Rialtas rud éigin a dhéanamh. Glacfaidh siad leis ach ní ndéanfaidh siad faic faoi. Is trua sin. Tuigim an méid atá ráite ag an Aire go bhfuil siad ag féachaint ar an gceist. Tá sé cosúil leis an seanscéal faoin gcúigear fear ag féachaint isteach i bpoll. Ní leigheasfaidh sé sin an fhadhb. Sa deireadh, caithfimid rud éigin a dhéanamh do na hothair, a bhfuil ailse nó a leithéid orthu, a mbíonn orthu freastal a dhéanamh ar ospidéal rialta go leor, uaireanta gach lá, chun a chinntiú nach mbeadh pionós gearrtha orthu, mar is é sin atá i gceist. Tá sé níos measa fós anois toisc go bhfuil costais taistil arduithe de thairbhe ardú luach breosla. Anuas air sin, tá an costas a bhaineann le carrchlóis na n-ospidéal.

I was interested to hear the experience that Deputy Tóibín mentioned in Galway hospital, I think it was, where people had 20 minutes and they came in and went out in that time. From my wife's experience in St. James's Hospital, I know there was a 20-minute period for people to get into the car park, go up the stairs, get their bloods done and then get back out to the car park and out before charges kicked in. The system for giving blood was that good. What did the hospital car park regime do then? It lowered the allowable time to ten minutes, which means there is no hope in hell of getting in and out that quick. That was done just to ensure that everybody using the car park ended up being penalised. It was stupid, especially since most of the people managing to get in and out within ten or 15 minutes were the first people in at 8 o'clock in the morning. It was a great use of time, but now these people are being penalised.

The car park at St. James's Hospital is full to the brim. It is causing traffic chaos, including blocking buses using the hospital, because the car park entrance is full of cars waiting to go in once other vehicles have vacated a space. These cars are just sitting there. People going to outpatient services have nowhere else to go because the car park is full. I am not sure if that is because of the workers on the building site of the national children's hospital, NCH, or hospital staff taking up spaces. It is the same experience in other hospitals. The same is true at St. Vincent's University Hospital, which is completing, or has just completed, the building works for a new car park. The hospital is obviously confident the project will pay for itself. The car park was full when my father went into St. Vincent's for a visit, so he parked in a church across the road. He ended up being in hospital for seven days and his car was clamped in the church car park. Those are the consequences that arise when patients cannot park next to a hospital. We could have gone to collect the car if my father had managed to get a message out to us. We went later and found that the car was missing.

Turning to Children's Health Ireland, CHI, at Crumlin, anybody who has tried to visit the car park of that hospital on the Drimnagh Road will have seen the same problem. Every visitor's car is parked in the local neighbourhood. We are talking about people bringing sick children to hospital. The car parks are not good enough and then there is also the matter of the charges. No provision has been made for people in this situation, despite the suggestions we have made to add additional car parking, not paid car parking, to facilitate people bringing children to hospital. The result is that people are parking on local streets and further and further away from the hospital entrance. When the national children's hospital was being planned, I met members of the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board, NPHDB. They had great plans for staff parking off-site elsewhere, being bussed in, encouraged to use the Luas, etc. That approach does not seem to be working at the rate it should to ensure the car park will have free spaces for the patients.

As I mentioned, the major problem is that patients often do not know when they go in to hospital, for dialysis treatment, for example, whether they will get their own slot. They might be in hospital for half a day. We are lucky in Dublin because a bus comes around or a taxi can bring people to their appointments. Not everybody has access to those services. People coming up from the country to some of the main hospitals for an outpatient's appointment or an appointment with a specialist could be in the hospital for half the day thinking about the car parking charges ramping up throughout their stay.

Car parking can be made free. There are practical solutions to this issue. I heard what the Minister of State said about there being chaos when parking was opened previously. There was chaos before the parking charges were introduced in some of the hospitals I mentioned because people were parking and then walking to work. It is the same anywhere in those localities where there is free parking. People will abuse something that is free but that does not prevent us from having an app which would allow parking to be pre-booked. To give the example of hotels, I was in one hotel in Galway - it was probably three years ago - where there was no attached parking and the hotel used a nearby car park. Guests were given a card, which they validated at the reception desk, and that enabled them to avail of free or discounted parking. It is a very simple process and is done everywhere else in the world. Why can we not do something like that?

I have a parking app on my phone which means I can pull up at any parking space along a street, type in how long I am going to be there and the money is taken out of my account. We do not want money taken out of people's accounts but when patients are making appointments, the staff in the hospital should be able to ask them what time they will arrive and book them in for that time in the car park based on the car registration. People going to Dublin Airport in the morning who have paid in advance will pull up to the car park barrier, where the camera will read the car registration number. Up goes the barrier, in goes the car and back down comes the barrier. The charge accrued is docked when the vehicle leaves the car park. The same type of principle can be applied to anybody. This kind of approach would allow people to go up to the reception desk on the way out of hospital, after what may have been a traumatic day, and give details of their car registration number. It could just be typed into a computer system. This is not rocket science. There are practical solutions to the problems that have been pointed out about free car parking in hospitals. This is about getting real.

There was a hint in what the Minister of State and the Deputy before him said about what some of this is about. The hospitals have become reliant on the income generated from parking charges. This just shows the state of our funding for hospitals, which are reliant on penalising patients through car parking fees to meet their running costs. That needs to end. I have absolutely no problem with cars being clamped and towed away if there is abuse of parking spaces, such as in the cases I mentioned of people leaving their cars and going to work. There is no reason on earth, however, why we cannot devise a system to facilitate patients who are regular visitors to the hospitals. We are talking about those going to outpatient services in particular. God love the people who end up in accident and emergency departments. They often park, abandon their car and run straight in to the hospital. Hospitals are usually sympathetic in those cases and move the vehicle to one side or whatever.

I am referring to people who regularly attend appointments in hospitals. It is not possible for all patients to get the Luas to St. Vincent's or Tallaght hospitals. Not everybody can afford to get a taxi to an appointment. People from outside Dublin are especially reliant on car parks. Hospitals in rural Ireland may be in places where there are no bus, Luas or DART services. In such circumstances, people are dependent on their cars. They may drive to the hospital themselves but often a neighbour will drive them and he or she will have to park and wait around.

A move must be made on this issue and there need to be practical solutions. This is not a political issue or a matter of this side versus that side.

This is about patients. This is about relieving a burden that should not be on people when they are ill. They need to concentrate on getting better and the fact that they are going to see a doctor who will, hopefully, make them better so that they come out the other side, rather than thinking that the appointment is taking too long and that it will cost them another €3 because they have gone into the third or fourth hour parking rate. That is absolutely crazy. I know that is what happens. When patients are being treated and the doctor is explaining something to them, they are distracted by hoping the doctor will shut up soon because they have gone into the next hour. We have not even touched on visitors going to see people who are in hospital. That is another issue. Most visitors attend at night when the car parks are relatively empty. The question is whether we make car parking free or make it a nominal sum. It should never be for profit.

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