Hospital parking charges could be abolished temporarily

Hospital car parking charges could be "abolished temporarily" in Northern Ireland next month.

Health Minister Mike Nesbitt warned of the "potential disruption" as Stormont on Monday evening agreed to further postpone legislation on ending hospital parking fees.

It is the second time in as many years that assembly members have pushed back their Hospital Parking Charges Act, which was originally passed in 2022.

Some parties expressed "frustration" over the latest delay, but Nesbitt said it was needed to "protect frontline services" from an "immediate and unmanaged loss of income".

The minister said the removal of hospital parking fees would result in a loss of revenue of around £7m a year.

"In the current financial environment that loss would inevitably have to be offset through reductions elsewhere, directly affecting services provided to patients and to families," he added.

Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) assembly member Matthew O'Toole, leader of Stormont's opposition, said the move made "Fawlty Towers look like a documentary".

The original legislation sought to end charges for parking vehicles in hospital car parks for staff, patients and visitors.

It was first agreed in 2022 having been brought forward as a private member's bill by Sinn Féin assembly member Aisling Reilly.

The law briefly came into effect in 2024 after a deferral bill was not passed on time by members of the legislative assembly (MLAs).

Following its postponement, the legislation was due to take effect in May this year.

But Nesbitt in March introduced another deferral bill, which has been fast-tracked through the Northern Ireland Assembly.

The new bill further postpones the 2022 legislation for up to another three years.

It enables the Department of Health to set a new date of no later than 12 May 2029 for the legislation to come into force.

A majority of 42 MLAs voted in favour of the deferral bill, with 25 voting against.

Although the bill was fast-tracked, Nesbitt said hospital parking charges could still be "abolished temporarily" if the legislation does not receive royal assent on time.

"I'm hoping that will be secured in the next 14 working days so we can avoid the potential disruption from car parking charges being abolished temporarily on 12 May," he said.

"In the event that car parking charges are abolished temporarily, I would ask members to support the trusts as they seek to minimise the inevitable disruption that may follow."

Nesbitt said the deferral was "not a reversal of principle" but described the funding challenges in his department as "unprecedented".

"The projected deficit facing my department is currently approximately £760m in this current financial year, and that's expected to grow further in subsequent years," he said.

Sinn Féin MLA Philip McGuigan, chair of the assembly's health committee, said his party was opposed to the deferral bill.

"There was a clear, united position that charging patients, families and staff to access healthcare was wrong," he said.

On the revenue implications for the health department, he said that "delay also has a cost".

Alliance Party MLA Danny Donnelly said the issue had caused "real frustration and real distress" to healthcare workers, patients and their families.

He said the original legislation was "in theory a positive initiative" but he said the loss of around £7m a year in revenue was "not an insignificant sum".

People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll said: "If you look up 'hames' in the dictionary I think you'd see a copy of this bill in how this has been handled by this minister, the previous minister and the executive on the whole."

However, speaking on the Good Morning Ulster programme on Tuesday, the DUP's Diane Dodds defended the deferral bill.

"In difficult situations sometimes we have to make difficult choices and I do believe that people understand that and they want politicians to have some common sense, deal with the urgent priorities that are important to them," she said.

"And certainly the health service has a long shopping list of urgent priorities that need to be dealt with very, very quickly.

"Added into that, we also have a proposed draft budget which would see health starting the next financial year with a £760m deficit.

"To have actually voted against the measure yesterday would have added to that deficit."

There are just under 20,000 car parking spaces across 16 healthcare sites in Northern Ireland.

Since the original legislation was passed, health trusts have spent millions of pounds on new parking infrastructure to prepare for the change.

It includes new cameras and automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) technology to protect ambulance routes and designated staff spaces.

Health trusts were allocated £5m by Stormont to upgrade car park barriers and source ANPR equipment, according to a response to a written assembly question.