Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill has published a paper on Ireland’s future health and social care workforce, which demonstrates an urgent need to build a future supply of healthcare workers.
The document is part of the Department’s long-term health and social care workforce planning projections in the context of Ireland’s dependence on healthcare workers that were educated abroad, its ageing population, and rising prevalence of chronic diseases.
The document sets out “an evidence-based strategic direction” for the health and social care workforce for the next 15 years.
The Economic and Social Research Institute Capacity Reviews commissioned by the Department of Health inform the demand projections within the paper and provide a crucial evidence-base. Projections and gap analysis show an expectation of a shortfall across health and social care staff categories modelled.
The analysis also demonstrates that with the implementation of planned health policies and workforce reforms, there will be an average annual growth rate required of approximately 1.4-2 per cent from 2023 to 2040 for the professions modelled. Population demographics are the major driver for this increased demand.
According to the paper, a whole of government response is required to support the higher education institutions to significantly expand student capacity to meet the future needs of the health, disability, and education sectors.
Minister Carroll MacNeill said the paper is “an important step” in ensuring an adequate workforce to deliver care. She added that Sláintecare reform “is transforming how healthcare is delivered in Ireland”, and described the health and social care workforce as “our strongest asset”.
“Every day, across a wide range of settings, they go to extraordinary lengths to deliver care to thousands of people. However, 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. In recent years, significant investment has been made in the workforce.
“Substantial progress has been made to build capacity and improve the availability of health professionals to support integrated care across the entire health service and to deliver on modernised care pathways.
“Developing a dynamic, agile workforce and increasing the domestic supply of health and social care professionals will be essential to ensuring an economically sustainable workforce that can meet the health needs of our growing and ageing population.”
Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation, and Science, James Lawless welcomed the paper, saying: “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.
“Delivering this vision will require continued cross-government collaboration and sustained investment. Significant funding has been secured for 2025-2026 and beyond, and my officials and the HEA [Higher Education Authority] are progressing further expressions of interest to the sector to expand training capacity where it is most needed.
“I remain committed to working with the Minister for Health to ensure we have the skilled workforce required to deliver high-quality health and social care services into the future.”
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