Hospitals serving the Shannonside region have made over €870,000 from parking charges last year. It comes as motions were raised by the Labour party to abolish all parking charges for public patients and healthcare staff in Budget 2026. The figures were made available by Labour TD Mark Wall, who is calling on the Health Minister to ban parking charges for patients and staff. Sligo University Hospital made a gross revenue of €410,581 from parking fees last year, the highest in the region. This is followed by Mullingar Regional Hospital at €347,505. While Portiuncula University Hospital made €114,840 from parking charges last year.
Portiuncula Hospital continues at the same parking charges, however the hospital specifies it provides wheelchair accessible parking spaces and designated spaces for patients attending Oncology and the Warfarin Clinic, which are all free of charge. Figures also revealed the total amount of money charged at the hospital so far this year stands at €146,847, while the data for Sligo University Hospital is not yet available. Nationally, Cork University Hospital had the highest bill at €2.3 million.
