Ireland is spending more than twice as much on health as it did in 2015.
For patients who need a hospital bed overnight, capacity has barely kept pace.
A hospital trolley is not what any family hopes for when someone they love falls ill. Yet in 2025, nurses counted 114,029 patients admitted to hospital without a bed, including 1,248 children. [3]
Behind that total is a simple question: when someone in your family needs a bed, will there be one, staffed and ready?
“Persistent staffing gaps across the public health service are undermining their ability to deliver safe and timely care.”
Phil Ní Sheaghdha, General Secretary, Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, 31 December 2025 [3]
| Measure | Then | Now | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Public health spending (2015 → 2024) | €14.3bn | €29.0bn | +103% |
| Health service staff, whole-time (2016 → 2025) | 110,259 | 151,661 | +37.5% |
| People aged 65 and over (2016 → 2026) | 629,900 | 891,100 | +41.5% |
| Total population (2016 → 2026) | 4.74m | 5.53m | +16.6% |
| Acute inpatient beds (2015 → 2024) | 10,473 | 12,016 | +14.7% |
Spending is in cash terms, before inflation, and includes current and capital spending. Some of the rise reflects inflation, pay and Covid-era costs. Beds are in public acute hospitals; day-case beds rose faster, by 30.7%. Beds per 1,000 people calculated by The Irish Future. [1, 2, 4, 5, 6]
Spending per person rose from about €3,170 in 2016 to €5,390 in 2024. Beds per 1,000 people stayed at 2.23. The public deserves a clear account of what the money delivered.
| Year | Capital | Total |
|---|---|---|
| 2015 | €398m | €14.28bn |
| 2016 | €423m | €15.00bn |
| 2017 | €465m | €15.78bn |
| 2018 | €545m | €16.85bn |
| 2019 | €689m | €18.03bn |
| 2020 | €942m | €21.23bn |
| 2021 | €1,052m | €22.99bn |
| 2022 | €1,220m | €24.83bn |
| 2023 | €1,112m | €26.27bn |
| 2024 | €1,343m | €29.02bn |
| Change | +238% | +103% |
Current plus capital spending, in cash terms. Capital pays for buildings and equipment. Budget 2025 allocated €25.8bn for services; final 2025 spending is not yet published. [1, 2]
| Year | Day-case | Inpatient |
|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 2,026 | 10,473 |
| 2016 | 2,140 | 10,592 |
| 2017 | 2,170 | 10,665 |
| 2018 | 2,240 | 10,856 |
| 2019 | 2,290 | 10,951 |
| 2020 | 2,290 | 11,048 |
| 2021 | 2,440 | 11,337 |
| 2022 | 2,477 | 11,581 |
| 2023 | 2,614 | 11,907 |
| 2024 | 2,648 | 12,016 |
| Change | +30.7% | +14.7% |
Public acute hospitals. Inpatient beds are for patients who stay overnight. The days patients spent in those beds rose 16.7%, faster than the beds themselves. [3]
| Staff group | 2016 → 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Medical & dental | 9,723 → 15,198 | +56.3% |
| Management & admin | 16,767 → 25,223 | +50.4% |
| Health & social care | 15,364 → 22,525 | +46.6% |
| Nursing & midwifery | 35,835 → 48,759 | +36.1% |
| Patient & client care | 23,122 → 29,902 | +29.3% |
| General support | 9,448 → 10,054 | +6.4% |
Whole-time equivalents, HSE and Section 38 voluntary hospitals. The Department notes long-run comparisons are not fully valid because the service has been reorganised. [4]
More day services, community care, medicines and specialist treatment mean more patients are treated without staying overnight. Those gains are real where they are documented.
Which investments cut waiting times? How many funded posts are vacant? Which regions gained usable beds? How does the rise look after inflation and ageing?
WE HAVE ASKED the Department of Health and the HSE for a breakdown of how the extra €14.7 billion a year was spent. We will publish their answer.
The Government’s 2024 plan promises 4,367 acute beds by 2031. Only 3,438 of them are extra beds; the rest replace old ones. At the pace of the last decade, even the extra beds would take until the mid-2040s.
net additional acute beds in the 4,367-bed plan, May 2024. That is about 491 a year for seven years. [1]
acute inpatient beds added in nine years, from 10,473 to 12,016. That is about 171 a year. [2]
The other 929 beds in the plan replace existing ones, including 500 at the new National Children’s and National Maternity Hospitals. The plan separately reports 1,218 beds delivered since 2020; the HSE’s published series shows 968 more acute inpatient beds in 2024 than in 2020. Only beds due by the end of 2026 are funded. [1, 2]
A replacement bed may be badly needed for safer, modern care. But it does not let a hospital admit one more patient. Counting it as new capacity would mislead.
The HSE’s 2026 service plan commits to 177 acute beds and 428 community beds this year. They are different kinds of bed, and a commitment is not proof of delivery. [3]
The State’s 2018 Capacity Review said Ireland needed about 2,600 extra acute beds by 2031 even with major reforms, and over 7,000 without them. Hospitals were running at about 95% full, against a safe norm of 85%. In 2019, Ireland’s hospitals were the fullest in the OECD. [4, 5]
“The reliance on surge beds, which are not properly staffed, is a cause of concern.”
Phil Ní Sheaghdha, INMO, 31 December 2025 [6]
| INMO TrolleyWatch | Patients |
|---|---|
| January 2025, worst month on record | 13,972 |
| Admitted without a bed, all of 2025 | 114,029 |
| of whom were children | 1,248 |
In November 2025, the INMO listed Midland Regional Hospital, Mullingar, among the hospitals with the largest rises in trolley numbers that year: up 40%. [7]
A hospital bed is only part of the story. Families also need home support, time to recover after hospital, and a nursing home place when home is no longer safe.
Picture the meeting many families dread. An older parent is well enough to leave hospital, but no longer safe at home without help. Their children have jobs, children of their own and other people to care for. Where does their parent go?
This is an illustrative scenario, not a reported interview.
When there is no home support and no nursing home place, patients who are ready to leave can stay in hospital beds, and the next patient can end up on a trolley.
Ireland’s population reached 5,525,600 in April 2026, up 786,000 since 2016. Net migration made up about seven in ten of last year’s growth. Every new resident adds to demand for GPs, beds and, in time, care. [1, 2]
There is no routine infectious disease screening for people arriving; it is offered, not required. From 2022 to 2024 there were 10,218 screening attendances, against 45,489 applications for international protection. A 2023 HSE report found about 65,000 people recommended for screening had not yet been offered it. [7, 8, 9]
TB rates are ten times higher among people born abroad, but many cases surface years after arrival. That shows when TB became active, not where it was caught. [10]
| Nursing home beds registered, end 2025 | 32,408 |
| Change in 2025 | +38 |
| Change, year to June 2026 | −116 |
| Occupancy, 2026 | 94.9% |
| Long-stay beds needed by 2040 | 47,590 – 53,270 |
HIQA counts all registered nursing home beds. The ESRI figure is for long-stay beds only (29,579 in 2022), so the two should not be subtracted. [3, 4, 5]
In the year to June 2026, 448 beds opened in 10 new homes, but 564 were lost to closures and cuts. Homes plan about 605 extra beds over the next two years. [5]
The HSE announced seven new public nursing homes, with 530 beds, in 2022. They were due by 2024. By August 2026, two had opened. [6]
Publish a plan for every region: home support hours, recovery beds and extra nursing home places, with progress reported each year.
PUBLICATION NOTE Original sources are linked on each page. Corrections: Ruan O'Camlaoich cambling@proton.me.