Debate contribution: Hospital Parking Charges Bill: Second Stage

Debate contribution by Mr Colin McGrath on 10 March 2026.

MLA

Mr Colin McGrath

Party at the time

Social Democratic and Labour Party

Date

10 March 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

Hospital Parking Charges Bill: Second Stage

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5436962

Read the official Assembly record

Text

What a farce: an Act that promised to bring so much to so many will be delayed once again. The legislation, which was full of promise, with suggestions that there would be plenty of money there for it, was passed just weeks before the election in 2022. Then, just weeks after we came back — eventually — in 2024, it had to be completely overturned, because there was not enough money for it. Originally, the then Health Minister was landed with a private Member's Bill from Sinn Féin, and now the current Health Minister has said that he will struggle to commence the 2022 Act's provisions because he does not have enough money to cover the costs. We are told that the cost would be around £7 million, the majority of which is rates that need to be paid to the Sinn Féin Finance Minister. We therefore have money from a Bill that goes in one way, goes through the Department of Health and then comes back out another way. Then we have no money, so the legislation does not get implemented. We were told the whole way through that the legislation would have no impact on front-line medical services, yet now we are told that, if we do not agree to the delay, £7 million will have to be diverted from front-line health services to fund it. The legislation therefore does have an impact on front-line services. What a farce. Staff were promised free car parking. It subsequently turned out to be the case that only some staff were to get free car parking. Only some staff who work in hospitals where there are car parking charges get free car parking. That has created a two-tier system at some sites. That is down to the fact there is not enough capacity to deliver free car parking. Again, what a farce. We are now dealing with a Bill that looks to delay free car parking until no later than May 2029. Free car parking will be brought in before then only if there is money available. I am pretty confident in saying that, a few weeks before May 2029, we will be back here looking at a further extension, because it is unlikely that whoever the Health Minister is then will be able to come up with the millions and millions of pounds in rates that need to be paid to the Department of Finance to introduce free car parking at hospitals. The Bill has been granted accelerated passage. That was required because the Minister could not get it on the Executive agenda. It was not that the legislation was not ready. It was not that it had not been prepared. It was not that the Minister was not ready to say, "This Bill needs to be presented to the House". The Committee did not have an opportunity to scrutinise the Bill properly because the Minister could not get it on to the Executive's agenda so that it could be approved in time for it to have a Committee Stage. Once again, what a farce. Some parties blocked a Bill from going to the Executive in order to stop its going to the Committee to receive proper scrutiny. They stopped the Committee from discussing a Bill that would stop money going from one Department to another Department, and the result of that has been that staff are being prevented from getting the free car parking that was promised to them. What an absolute farce. What we have today is a delaying Bill to the 2022 Act. It was so delayed that it could not receive Committee scrutiny. This has been a farce from start to finish. It has been handled badly. It is another example of how the Executive sometimes cannot get the basics right.

Thank you very much for that defence of the process, Mr Deputy Speaker.

Thank you very much for your explanation of the situation, Mr Deputy Speaker. My colleague mentioned how there was great urgency to remove the infrastructure. It was not just about removing the infrastructure. As the Minister said, it cost millions of pounds to implement new infrastructure in those car parks. It is costing us money. Yes, I accept the point that there will be an opportunity to use that infrastructure in the future, but we will wait and see whether the original Bill ever makes its way through. I started my contribution by referencing the fact that this is a farce. I finish by saying that it is a complete farce.

759 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 15:13 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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