Spending on agency staff at St Luke’s Hospital slammed

SPENDING on agency staff at St Luke’s General Hospital in Kilkenny has risen by 61% over a four-year period, data released to Sinn Féin has shown. The party has blasted the ‘skyrocketing’ spending by the Health Service Executive (HSE) and said the ‘wasteful over-reliance on costly outsourced staff is unacceptable and unsustainable’.

Carlow/Kilkenny Sinn Féin TD Natasha Newsome Drennan said: “It is completely unacceptable that HSE spending on outsourced staffing continues to spiral upwards. It is staggering that €28.8m was spent on agency staff in St Luke’s Hospital since 2023.

“It is shocking that more than €12 million was spent on agency staff at St Luke’s, Kilkenny in 2024 alone. That’s a 61% increase since 2021.” Her comments come as figures released to the party show that €28.8 million has been spent on private agency staffing at St Luke’s since 2023. A total of €725m was spent across the state last year, a 33% increase since 2021.

Deputy Newsome Drennan added: “Across the state, more than €725m was spent on agency staffing in 2024 and the spend has not slowed in 2025. Since 2021, the HSE has forked out €2.9 billion on private agency staffing, which comes at a premium cost. It is incredible that the HSE could consider this wasteful spending to be sustainable.

“Wasteful over-reliance on agency spending has long been an area identified where real savings can be made. Yet, we are still seeing year-on-year increases, despite the government’s health productivity and savings task force.” 

The TD pointed out that “this spike comes at the same time and, in my view, is directly related to the government’s arbitrary recruitment limits under the pay and numbers strategy. These staff are needed to provide essential services, but they cannot be recruited directly, so the HSE is paying a premium price for agency workers instead”.

She said that the health service needs an ambitious and realistic workforce plan to directly train, recruit and retain the workers needed to safely staff the health service, and strict targets to significantly reduce runaway agency spending.

“That is what Sinn Féin proposed in our health plan and it is what we will propose again in our alternative budget because the problems in the health service will never be addressed without a serious multi-annual plan that is fully thought-through,” deputy Newsome Drennan continued.

“Successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael governments have failed to produce any comprehensive plan to address this. Instead, they are limping year-to-year with pretend plans that lack any long-term vision.

“The productivity task force and the pay and numbers strategy are merely sticking-plaster solutions that have not worked. As a result of these shortsighted ineffective measures, our health service has been left with no choice but to rely heavily on agency workers.”