Ireland facing shortage of health and social care workers, says Health Minister

By Bairbre Holmes, Press Association

Ireland will not have a “sufficient” number of health and social care workers in the future, the Minister for Health has said.

Publishing a paper on Tuesday, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill said: “Our modelling projections are showing that if we continue on our current trajectory, we will not have a sufficient number of health and social care workers in the future.”

The paper titled Ireland’s Future Health and Social Care Workforce looks at how Ireland should plan the future of its health and social care services and shows there is an “urgent need” to ensure a supply of workers.

My Department strongly supports this long-term approach and the shared ambition to expand domestic education and training capacity. Since 2022, more than 1,300 additional training places have been delivered across priority health and social care disciplines, with a further 600 places on track for 2026

Ms MacNeill describes a “complex” set of challenges in the paper, including a global workforce shortage, a growing and ageing population, and rising levels of chronic diseases.

Ireland’s population has increased by almost 15 per cent in the past decade and recent Department of Finance figures forecast the population could reach 7.59 million by 2065, up from the current level of 5.45 million.

On top of that the number of people aged over 65 has increased by 37 per cent since 2014, much higher than the EU average of 16.5 per cent.

The paper says: “Ireland’s age-related healthcare costs will rise beyond those currently being experienced in other countries in the coming decades.”

The number of health and social care workers aged over 55 is also expected to rise and the paper found it is “not feasible” to meet future demand solely by increasing the number of workers.

Instead, it says, it is “essential” to consider new ways to improve productivity and efficiency, including the use of Artificial Intelligence to “support decision making, perform administrative tasks and enhance diagnostics”.

The paper also says there is “likely” to be a “significant” gap between the “supply and demand of healthcare workers”.

It recommends an expansion of student places to replace the current workforce and meet future demands, saying “there is a real opportunity to boost the domestic supply of health and social care graduates”.

Adding a whole government response is required and “there is a need to ensure that students are attracted into health and social care careers, and to consider alternative routes into the health and social care workforce and to improve accessibility.”

It also found the reliance on foreign educated workers and the high emigration rate leaves healthcare services “fragile to supply shocks”.

In response, Minister for Further and Higher Education James Lawless said: “My Department strongly supports this long-term approach and the shared ambition to expand domestic education and training capacity.

“Since 2022, more than 1,300 additional training places have been delivered across priority health and social care disciplines, with a further 600 places on track for 2026.”