Vol. 253 No. 8
asked the Minister for Health if he is aware that Dublin Corporation provide full parking facilities for their officials but disclaim any responsibility for the provision of similar amenities for doctors employed in dispensaries throughout the city; and, if so, if he will take steps to have this undesirable situation rectified as soon as possible.
3.
asked the Minister for Health if he is aware of the total lack of parking facilities available for doctors employed by the Dublin Health Authority; and, if so, if he will take steps to have such facilities made available so that the cars will no longer be subject to control by traffic wardens.
I propose with the permission of the Ceann Comhairle to reply to Questions Nos. 2 and 3 together. I think that, on reflection, the Deputy will realise that his reference to a total lack of parking facilities available for doctors employed in the health services in the Dublin area is a case of extreme exaggeration. Doctors employed in the hospital services, for example, have, so far as I have been able to ascertain, no problem whatsoever in this regard, and, so far as inquiries which I have made show, it is a problem which tends to inhibit the performance of their duties in the case of only a limited number of other doctors in the centre city area.
In the case of there being a serious interference with a doctor's ability to perform his duties adequately because of parking restrictions, then I suggest that he should bring it to the attention of the chief executive officer of the health board for which he is working. The chief executive officer would naturally be in the best position to evaluate each individual problem and to seek a solution to it, taking up the matter if necessary with the appropriate traffic or parking authorities.
Is the Minister aware that there are special parking facilities for officials of the Dublin Corporation, that the medical officers are not allowed to utilise those parking facilities as they have been told by the corporation officials that the health authority is responsible for them? Would the Minister not consider it his duty as Minister for Health to ensure that the Dublin Health Authority make parking facilities available for medical officers so that they will at least be on a par with the other corporation officials?
I understand that an officer of the Eastern Health Board is aware of this question and I believe he is at the moment considering it.
I do not wish to press the Minister unduly, but is he further aware that doctors have been prosecuted and taken to court for parking their cars where it is considered to be illegal to do so? They have nowhere to park unless they park miles away, to the detriment of their patients and themselves. It is a matter of urgency that the health authority, the corporation, or somebody else, take responsibility.
I will convey the views of the Deputy to the chief executive officer of the Eastern Health Board. It is not really my ultimate responsibility. It should be settled at health board level.
Would the Minister inform the House why employees of Dublin Corporation have special facilities? Is he aware that a doctor made a habit of parking for some time in a space reserved for employees of Dublin Corporation and that when they found out he was immediately ordered out of it? Why have they special facilities?
I have already answered Deputy Esmonde on that point. The chief executive officer is being made aware of it. If I started taking charge of matters such as this in my Department there would be no end to it. I would be taking over matters which are strictly the responsibility of the health board.
Surely the Minister recognises that all the children of the nation should be treated equally? Those people should have the same rights as every other section of the people.
Many of them have no cars at all.
Why should they have special facilities?
