![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1_CUH.png\")
<\/p>\n‘Will they abolish parking fees or was this just another election promise’<\/p>\n
10:06, 25 Feb 2026Updated 10:06, 25 Feb 2026<\/p>\n
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Cork University Hospital(Image: Google)<\/p>\n
A Cork TD has called on the Government <\/a>to fulfil its election promises as new figures show Cork <\/a>hospitals collected over \u20ac3 million in car parking charges last year. The amount paid in parking fees has increased year-on-year despite repeated promises from the Government to cap or reduce the payments.<\/p>\n The latest figures released by the Department of Health show that Cork University Hospital<\/a> collected \u20ac2,782,376 last year, while the South Infirmary took in \u20ac384,033. The smaller southside hospital has seen a negligible increase compared to 2024, collecting only \u20ac965 more, whereas parking charges at the CUH rose by \u20ac144,175 last year – an increase of 5.1%.<\/p>\n Sinn F\u00e9in’s Thomas Gould has called on the Government to fulfil the promises set out in the Programme for Government, in which the coalition committed to capping and reducing parking charges at public hospitals.<\/p>\n In the 2020 programme, the Government promised to introduce a maximum daily cap on parking fees and introduce flexible passes for patients and their families at public hospitals. This promise wasn’t fulfilled, and now the 2025 programme commits only to ‘exploring further ways to reduce hospital car parking charges,’ with no mention of a daily cap or flexi passes.<\/p>\n Deputy Gould said he’s spoken with family members who have had to reduce the time they spend with loved ones in the hospital due to parking charges, and some have had to borrow money to pay for parking while attending their own appointments. He also accused the Government of ‘wheeling out’ promises to reduce or abolish parking fees to score political points around election time.<\/p>\n The Cork North Central TD said: \u201cDuring the general election, the government parties were quick to say they\u2019d be reducing car parking charges in hospitals. In 2018, they announced a review of these charges. But in 2019, the CUH took in just over \u20ac2.5m in car parking fees. This has now increased year on year to almost \u20ac2.8m last year.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis. People can\u2019t afford to pay. I have been contacted by people who\u2019ve had to reduce the time spent with loved ones or borrow to pay for their own trips to hospital. How can Fianna F\u00e1il and Fine Gael stand over this?<\/p>\n \u201cEmpty promises don\u2019t help people at the parking meter. Patients can\u2019t pay with a Programme for Government Commitment. Factoring in car parking costs shouldn\u2019t be a consideration when a person, or their loved one, is sick.”<\/p>\n Deputy Gould described the six-figure increase as ‘beyond shocking’ and accused the Government of quietly dropping the promise to reduce fees in the hopes that the public would ‘forget about it.’<\/p>\n He concluded: \u201cWe believe that financial barriers should be removed from healthcare. For many people in Cork, the unreliability of buses like the 214 means that they\u2019ve no choice but to drive to the CUH. They will miss appointments otherwise.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is time for Government to come clean. Will they abolish parking fees or was this just another election promise to be wheeled out again when the posters are back up on poles?\u201d<\/p>\n The Department of Health noted that any monies raised from car parking fees form part of the hospital budget, which includes car park maintenance and upgrades.<\/p>\n Want to see more of the biggest and breaking stories from Cork Beo? Making us your preferred source on Google<\/a> means you\u2019ll get more of our exclusives, top stories and must-read content straight away. To add Cork Beo as a preferred source, simply click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"‘Will they abolish parking fees or was this just another election promise’ 10:06, 25 Feb 2026Updated 10:06, 25…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323963,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[27121,103,397,396,61,60],"class_list":["post-323962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-cork-university-hospital","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}