Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Bill to exempt certain groups, including children under 16 years of age, from statutory charges for inpatient and day care services in public hospitals. I am sure this will be a welcome relief for hard-pressed families given the increase in the cost of living in all other aspects of life but it needs to go much further. The fact that these charges were introduced in the first place is actually quite unbelievable. As a parent of four children who has had to visit Temple Street hospital on several occasions, it was very annoying to be faced with an enormous bill when all I was thinking about was my sick child. This is a small step in the right direction, that is, towards a centrally funded health service that is free at the point of delivery.

The Government needs to ensure we move to full implementation of Sláintecare as quickly as possible.

I also welcome the provision of contraception and reproductive healthcare. This is very positive news but I am concerned that like other promises made, it will be easier announced that done. We are awaiting several measures the Minister announced this year and last.

I will take this opportunity to outline another cost associated with visiting a hospital. It is incredible that, on arriving at a hospital in a hurry when visiting for treatment, or even going to visit a family member who is an inpatient, the first thing people have to do in most hospitals is pay for car parking. It is the last thing they should be worrying about when having to attend hospital. I have raised this issue with Connolly Hospital in Dublin 15 on many occasions. Local Sinn Féin members organised a free cark parking day in the hospital, where activists stood there all day and if clampers came along, we paid the car parking. That was just to highlight how wrong it is that people going into hospital have to pay for car parking. Just up the road in the Blanchardstown shopping centre, there are 6,000 car parking spaces. I could go to the shopping centre, do my shopping, spend all day there and even leave the car overnight and I would not be charged a single cent. Yet if I go to visit a sick relative, or if I am sick or have to go to the emergency department, I have to pay for that. If I do not, I get clamped and charged €80 or €100. The system we have in place is wrong. I spoke to people in hospital management, who said this was worth €250,000 to them each year. That may seem like an awful lot of money but in the scheme of things it is a very small amount. This must be addressed. My colleague, Sinn Féin MLA Aisling Reilly, successfully got a motion passed in the Assembly to make car parking free at hospitals across the North. It will abolish this unfair tax on health workers, patients and visitors. It is time we follow suit.

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