Louth hospital car park income rises by €114,000 in five years as concerns raised
Committee was told Drogheda Hospital is “choked in the middle of a huge and rapidly growing residential area”
Louth TD Joanna Byrne has raised concerns over car parking charges at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, describing them as an additional burden on families attending the hospital for ongoing treatment.
Deputy Byrne raised the issue during a meeting of the Committee of Public Accounts with Health Service Executive Chief Executive Officer Anne O’Connor.
Speaking about services at Our Lady of Lourdes, Deputy Byrne acknowledged the work being carried out at the Drogheda hospital, but said significant challenges remained for patients.
She referred to a recent case brought to her attention by a local journalist who had attended the emergency department for a blood test and was left waiting for approximately 16 hours.
Deputy Byrne also highlighted the recurring pressures on the hospital's emergency department, including periods when ambulances have been unable to offload patients because of a lack of space.
However, she said car parking had become a particular concern for patients and families.
“Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital is choked in the middle of a huge and rapidly growing residential area,” she told the committee, pointing out that there is limited on-street parking around the hospital.
She said the hospital car park is also some distance from the main hospital buildings, creating an additional inconvenience for patients and visitors.
Deputy Byrne told the committee that she had seen recent reports concerning a review of hospital car parking charges and questioned Ms O’Connor on what the HSE expected the outcome of that review to be.
She highlighted figures showing income from the Our Lady of Lourdes car park rising from €346,000 in 2020 to €460,000 in 2025.
The issue, she said, represented an additional financial burden for families who may have to attend hospital regularly over an extended period.
“It is an additional tax on being sick in some people's view,” Deputy Byrne told the committee.
In response, Ms O’Connor said hospital car parking had been under discussion for a number of years.
She said a review had been carried out in 2018 but had not been fully implemented.
“Recently we instructed all areas and all hospitals to proceed with the implementation of that,” Ms O’Connor said.
She added, however, that circumstances had changed since the 2018 review and that the HSE now needed to reassess the situation.
Ms O’Connor said she had asked the HSE’s national director of health infrastructure to establish a group to examine the issue and progress the recommendations contained in the earlier review.
That work would include consideration of a €10-a-day parking charge, as well as determining what further measures might be required, she said.
“I understand that group is meeting next week,” Ms O’Connor told the committee.
The HSE chief executive also acknowledged that parking pressures vary significantly between hospitals, noting that in areas such as Dublin city centre there are particular difficulties in ensuring parking spaces remain available for patients and visitors.