Debate contribution: Hospital Parking Charges Bill: Final Stage

Debate contribution by Mr Mike Nesbitt on 20 April 2026.

MLA: Mr Mike Nesbitt
Party at the time: Ulster Unionist Party
Date: 20 April 2026
Type: Debate contribution (made as a minister)
Business: Executive Committee Business
Heading: Hospital Parking Charges Bill: Final Stage
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 5494069

Text

Thank you, Deputy Speaker. There are a few matters arising from Members' comments. I emphasise that the £7 million is not additional money or new money. It is simply a question of saying that we currently forecast a shortfall this year of £760 million. That prevents it from becoming £767 million. I share Mrs Dodds's desire to see 24/7 thrombectomy care for stroke patients. We are talking about up to 160 people a year who miss out because the service is not 24/7, and they live the rest of their lives with the impact of that stroke, whereas, with a 24/7 service, up to 160 people could be in and out of hospital on the day, undergoing a 15-minute procedure and leaving with no side effects. I assure Mrs Dodds that I have a very long shopping list of things that I would like to introduce over the rest of the mandate, and thrombectomy services —
— are very much towards the top of that list.
I will give way to Mr Donnelly and then to Mrs Dodds.
I appreciate Mr Donnelly's intervention, but he will have to concede — I am sure that he knows this — that there are a lot of rules around how we spend money in Departments and a lot of legal obligations. If you do not have the money, you cannot spend it. It is very hard to justify the spend when you are saying that we are £760 million short of what we want. It is impossible to bring in a 24/7 service without the budget, and we do not have the budget now. As I give way to Mrs Dodds, I say to her, as I say to all Members from the four Executive parties: let us get the Budget done so that we can at least make those things possible.
OK, Deputy Speaker. Just to finish that off, though, thrombectomy is not, by far, the only area where there is a compelling case to invest to save. To keep to the subject of the Bill, as the Deputy Speaker, quite rightly, insists, when it comes to concessions, it would be a very poor Minister who made up policy, or made promises, on the hoof. I have heard what Members have said about what they do not want to hear me say, so I will just park it there. Mr Carroll's final question was whether there had been a vote on this at the Executive. Mr Carroll is perfectly entitled to seek the minutes of Executive meetings. This completes the Final Stage of the Bill's progress in the Assembly. As we know, it does not become law without Royal Assent. I hope that that will be secured in the next 14 working days, so that we can avoid the potential disruption from car parking charges being abolished temporarily on 12 May. To try to avoid that, I have written to the Secretary of State, the Attorney General and the Advocate General requesting that they provide the necessary assistance in their respective roles to expedite Royal Assent's being secured. I am very grateful for the positive response that I have received. I hope that that bodes well for the next, and very final, stage of the legislative process. However, in the event that car parking charges are abolished temporarily, I ask Members to support the trusts as they seek to minimise the inevitable disruption that will follow. For those reasons, I commend the Hospital Parking Charges Bill to the Assembly and ask Members for their support at Final Stage.

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

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