Revenue generated by parking fees at public hospitals has more than doubled over a four-year period.
A breakdown provided by the HSE shows how Irish people spent a record €17.76m on car park charges at public and voluntary hospitals in 2025 compared to €7.39m in 2021, representing a 140% increase over a four-year period.
The rising figure comes despite a commitment in the Programme for Government last year to “explore further ways to reduce hospital car parking charges”.
Monies gathered by public and voluntary hospitals from parking fees increased in each subsequent year after 2021, going from €10.61m in 2022 to €13.46m in 2023 and €16.18m in 2024.
Since the beginning of 2020, €73.5m has been collected by public hospitals from parking charges.
The largest increase in annual revenue between 2021 and 2025 came at Cork University Hospital, which saw an increase of €1.37m in its yield from parking fees.
The hospital gathered €2.72m in 2025, up from €1.35m in 2024. CUH’s revenue includes staff parking charges deducted through payroll, representing around €100,000 per annum.
Cork University Hospital along with University Hospital Limerick, Tallaght University Hospital, St James’s Hospital, Waterford Regional Hospital and Beaumont Hospital recorded the six largest increases.
The six facilities account for around €5.59m, or more than half of the overall €10.37m increase recorded between 2021 and 2025.
There is no single national contract for the provision of car-parking services across all publicly funded hospitals with individual hospitals operating their own local arrangements.
Nationwide, 36 hospitals charge for parking with the maximum daily rate capped at €10 or less in all but four of these hospitals. The parking cap at Dublin’s St Vincent’s Hospital is the highest at €17. Parking is free at nine further hospitals.
The HSE has pointed to the return to normal activity since the Covid-19 pandemic for the increased revenue since 2021 but Opposition politicians and patient advocate groups believe reform of the system is long overdue.
The figures were provided in response to a parliamentary question from Sinn Féin’s health spokesperson David Cullinane.
“Patients and families are paying the price. No one chooses cancer, dialysis or a long hospital stay. The fact is that these charges punish people for being sick. Parents visiting sick children, carers and people with disabilities are being hit again and again. Hospitals should not depend on money taken from sick people and their families,” he said.
“The current system is unfair and inconsistent. We need one national policy. The Government should fund a phased end to hospital parking charges,” added the Waterford TD.
Calls for hospitals to waive charges for cancer patients
The Irish Cancer Society reiterated its calls for hospitals to waive parking charges for cancer patients.
“Hospital car parking charges place a significant financial burden on cancer patients and their loved ones. In certain hospitals, patients can pay up to €300 per month on car parking alone just to access their life-saving cancer treatment,” said CEO Nikki Gallagher.
“Some hospitals charge nothing or have concession rates for cancer patients, which while welcome, results in unfairness. This is not about finger-pointing at individual hospitals.
“Government can provide the solution by abolishing hospital parking charges for all cancer patients. It is time for action and to park this unfair situation for good,” she added.
People paid €1.44m in parking charges at University Hospital Limerick in 2025, compared to €446,787 in 2021 – representing a 221.8% increase.
“There has been no increase in parking charges between 2021 and 2025”, a hospital spokesperson said, “rather, the increase is likely to reflect a combination of factors; including increased patient and visitor activity on the UHL campus following the easing of Covid-19 restrictions, a return to normal hospital operations, and increased demand for parking associated with the continued growth in activity at UHL”.
It said funds raised are “used to cover the external operational costs of managing the car park, including security, maintenance, lighting, barrier systems, and other essential services”.
The Department of Health insisted that work is ongoing to reduce the charges as per the commitment in the Programme for Government when the coalition came to office.
“In line with the Programme for Government commitment, the Secretary General of the Department of Health and the HSE CEO are currently engaging directly on the issue, in order to progress any further opportunities that will ease the burden for those most affected,” a spokesperson said.
“The majority of hospitals also have some form of exemptions or concessions in place such as the option of flexible day pass/multi-trip entry, or various concessions based on the type of patient,” they added.
Writing to Deputy Cullinane, the HSE Finance Manager Sarah Anderson stated: “Hospitals have introduced car parking charges over the past decade to recover the costs associated with providing and maintaining parking facilities, without placing additional pressure on budgets allocated to patient services.”
“As demand for the hospital parking has increased, so too have the associated costs. These include initial capital expenditure for the acquisition or leasing of parking areas, the development of additional parking capacity, the provision and enhancement of security systems, staffing requirements and the ongoing maintenance of car parking facilities,” she wrote.
