Cork TD calls for end to hospital parking charges after parking revenues soar at CUMH

A Cork TD has called for the phasing-out of hospital car parking charges, after annual parking revenues in Cork University Maternity Hospital (CUMH) jumped by a massive 3,917% between 2021 and 2025.

According to HSE figures, parking revenues of over €7,000 were recorded at CUMH in 2021, rising to €28,400 in 2022, €245,000 in 2023, €316,000 in 2024, and €303,000 in 2025.

Total parking revenue over the five years at CUMH amounted to just under €1m, at €967,369.

The difference in parking revenues at CUMH between 2021, which was in the depths of the covid pandemic, and 2025, marks an increase of 3,917%.

A breakdown provided by the HSE showed that members of the public spent a record €17.7m on hospital parking last year, with the amount spent at public and voluntary hospitals increasing by almost 120% in a five-year period.

Nationally, €8.1m was spent on parking fees in 2020, €7.3m in 2021, €10.6m in 2022, €13.4m in 2023, and €16.1m in 2024.

The hospital with the highest revenue was Cork University Hospital (CUH), with a combined spend of €11.9m over 5 years.

There, hospital car parking income rose from €1.3m in 2021 to €2.7m in 2025 — an increase of over 100%. In 2022, hospital parking income at CUH was €1.8m, in 2023 it was €2.2m, and in 2024 it was €2.4m.

A commitment to address hospital parking charges was included in the 2025 programme for government, which included a pledge to “explore further ways to reduce hospital car parking charges”.

Sinn Féin TD Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire, for Cork South Central, said there needed to be a funded plan to phase out hospital car parking charges, adding that patients and families should not be charged simply because they need healthcare.

“Hospital car parking charges are a charge on being sick and visiting families and friends in hospital,” he said.

“No one chooses to be sick or to have a sick child in hospital. Yet patients and families in Cork are being asked to pay these charges again and again.”