Clamping at hospitals has been causing added stress for people, patients and visitors alike, with a private company reporting nearly 12,000 clamps at hospitals over the last three years. 

Apcoa recorded 11,785 clamps at hopitals between 2023 and 2025, with Dublin Street Parking Services, which operates on behalf of Dublin City Council, recording almost 10,000 clamps on streets in and around the Mater Hospital, Temple Street Children's Hospital and Holles Street Hospital.

While these figures don't indicate which motorists were attending hospital appointments or were staff or visitors, but the figures show roughly 20 vehicles a day in three years were clamped in the areas of health care facilities.

Newstalk's Barry Whyte spoke to The Claire Byrne Show about the added stress this puts on patients especially, and he spoke to a woman, Tara Doonan from County Cavan, about how she got clamped.

She had paid for parking, but due to delays in her appointment and treatment, when she emerged, her car was clamped.

Tara explained: "I was getting treatment in hospital and often it takes a very long time because you have to get bloods at the start of the day and it all depends on how busy the oncology ward is.

"So I was probably five or six hours already in the hospital and then my treatment got delayed even further.

"I fell asleep and I forgot to renew my parking on the app. When I got back to the car after, I think it was eight or nine hours in the hospital, there was a clamp on the car.

"It was extremely distressing at the time, particularly to come out exhausted after a long day of getting treatment for something that's very difficult and challenging to deal with. It was like a punch in the stomach really.

"It was just really distressing and challenging. And then the thoughts of, where do I go to wait when this clamp has been taken off? What time will it be then when I get home? Will I be too exhausted to drive by the time all of this has happened?

"Do I have the money? Actually, I remember looking up my bank account and saying, do I even have the money to get this released?"

Tara was advised to get the clamp appealed, but even with a letter from the hospital, her appeal was unsuccessful.

She continued: "I was very annoyed and very upset. I think particularly what upset me the most is the second letter that I received from them stated something along the lines of they have sympathy for the situation I was in, but could do nothing about it.

"And that, to me, was very, very difficult because it showed that I don't want their sympathy. I want their empathy. I want a bit of humanity.

"Like this is a very exceptional circumstance. I felt that was so heartless."

The experience altered how Tara approached future appointments, with extra planning needing to be done in advance and setting alarms on her phone to make sure she didn't fall asleep again and miss the window to add time to her parking via the app.

She added: "Getting chemotherapy or treatment for cancer, it's a surreal, challenging thing. I was very ill at times. And just the last thing I thought when I was starting on the road of recovery was having to think about car parking and car parking charges and whether I was going to get clamped or not."

Mr Whyte added that between 2023 and 2025, 5,385 vehicles were clamped on streets surrounding the Mater hospital, which is also in the vacinity of Temple Street Hospital and The Mater Private. 

Tara also recalled how she had been speaking to a woman who was with her mother on her deathbed, and she had to come out and top up her parking.

For many parking meters in the areas surrounding hospitals, there's a three-hour maximum payment, so it's not possible to pay for the whole day off the bat either either with the app or the on-street machines.

Other people shared how the parking and clamping issues have altered how they plan to travel to appointments, with Martina telling Mr Whyte that her husband missed her being told the plans for her treatment as he was out topping up the meter.

While people travelling to hospitals are encouraged to use public transport, for certain people and patients, this simply isn't a viable option due to treatment types or available public transport options.

Main image: Car clamped Pic: CLEMENT-MANTION Pierre-Olivier / Alamy Stock Photo