Sinn Féin TD for Wicklow, John Brady, has said that the HSE’s continued reliance on costly outsourced agency staff is “unacceptable and completely unsustainable.”
Figures released to Sinn Féin health spokesperson, David Cullinane TD, reveal that St. Columcille’s Hospital in Loughlinstown spent €4,693,000 on agency staff in 2024, compared to €1,867,000 in 2021. This is an increase of over €2.8 million in just three years, representing a dramatic rise in dependency on costly agency staffing. St Vincent’s University Hospital also recorded a massive bill of €7,388,000 in 2024 for agency staff alone.
John Brady said the scale of the spending shows a clear failure in workforce planning.
“It is staggering that almost €4.7 million was spent on agency staff at St Columcille’s in a single year, more than doubling the 2021 figure,” he said. “These workers are needed to provide essential services, yet because of the government’s arbitrary recruitment limits, they cannot be directly recruited. Instead, the HSE is forced to pay a premium price for agency workers. This is wasteful and makes no long-term sense.”
The Wicklow TD pointed out that the money spent on agency staff since 2021 amounts to €2.9 billion nationwide.
“Wasteful over-reliance on agency spending has long been identified as an area where real savings can be made,” he said. “Yet the figures continue to spiral upwards, despite all the talk from the government about their productivity and savings task force. The situation in St. Vincent’s and St. Columcille’s is just a snapshot of a wider problem affecting hospitals across the state.”
Deputy Brady said Sinn Féin’s alternative budget will once again propose a comprehensive, multi annual workforce plan.
“The health service needs an ambitious and realistic plan to train, recruit, and retain staff directly, with strict targets to bring down runaway agency spending,” he said. “Successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael governments have limped from year to year with short term measures that simply do not work. Unless there is real reform, our health service will remain trapped in this vicious cycle.”