Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. That is good to hear. There are different costs in the various hospitals. As the Minister knows, there will be sick people who might have treatments in different hospitals. There is no uniformity to it. I acknowledge progress has been made and costs have come down and I want to acknowledge the work of the Irish Cancer Society and others with respect to their advocacy on car park charges. However, there are still anomalies and costs for people such as those I have outlined in my question with regard to CT scans.

The cost of care and the cost of being sick in this country are still very high. Much of this lies outside our care system in the context of people’s diet and everything we had previously. The cost of disability report highlighted a great deal in this regard. If we had uniformity in car parking charges, people accessing our hospitals would know the amount they are going to pay, whether they are in Castlebar, St. James Hospital, Cork or wherever. That said, I acknowledge the progress which has been made.

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