An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business
Seanad Éireann — 2026-05-27
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Gareth Scahill (FG), Nominated by the Taoiseach

I welcome Kathleen, Kevin and Alison here today. Kathleen may be retired but she is probably as busy now as she has ever been with the Tidy Towns Association. She is building on the great effort she has put into that down through the years. I wish Kathleen continued success.
It is just coincidental I am bringing this up at the moment. I welcome and commend Councillor Emer Kelly for, once again, raising the ongoing parking crisis in Roscommon University Hospital at the regional health forum recently. The response that she received from the HSE clearly acknowledges the seriousness of the issue, with additional parking now described as "urgent and essential". It also sets out the requirement for the future development of the hospital campus. The acknowledgment is important because everybody using Roscommon University Hospital - patients, family and staff - know that the current situation is simply unsustainable. Parking pressures have continued to grow as services, staffing levels and activity at the hospital have increased year on year. This is not a new issue. I raised this issue when I was a member of the regional health forum in 2024. At that stage I was informed that the spatial plan for the hospital campus would be completed by December 2024 and would help to address the parking difficulties. Since then, I have continued to pursue this matter and I have worked very closely with my colleague, Councillor Valerie Duffy, who is now representing us on the regional health forum. It is very frustrating that two years later, public representatives are still being fobbed off with a reference to a spatial plan that has not been delivered, while no meaningful progress has been delivered on the ground. Patients attending appointments should not face the stress of searching for parking and staff should not be left to rely on overflow arrangements that are already at full capacity most days. Enough is enough. Action is needed. The HSE must provide definite timelines for the completion and delivery of this spatial plan along with immediate interim measures to ease the parking crisis in Roscommon University Hospital. I am calling for a debate on this matter to see whether we can ensure that HSE west and other HSE services around the country are not just fobbing off public representatives with the same answers they have been using for two and three years. When we ask these questions, we deserve honesty and delivery on them.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-05-27/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:00+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-27