Cut in funding to HSE capital plan shows Government is not serious about building health service capacity

• Stagnant funding and ambition in HSE capital plan with a €14 million cut in HSE capital plan.
• Snail’s pace bed plan is not at the races when it comes to delivering the capacity required in our health service with just 143 acute beds to be completed this year.
• HSE capital budget and revised NDP sectoral plan simply cannot delivery electronic health records, a new maternity hospital and enhanced maternity care, and the necessary acute beds to deal with overcrowding and demand.

Labour Health Spokesperson Marie Sherlock TD has today called on the Minister for Health to outline a clear roadmap to delivering the 2,900 new acute hospital inpatient beds committed to between 2025 and 2031 in the Acute Hospital Inpatient Bed Capacity Expansion Plan and make it clear that this plan is fully funded through the revised NDP.

Deputy Sherlock said following the publication of the HSE Capital Plan 2026:

“The HSE Capital Plan confirms what has been obvious for some time, that the Minister and Government have lost ambition to build the bed capacity required to keep up with the significant demands of our health service now and to build a resilient universal health service into the future.

“There appears to be little emphasis on building the capacity of our health service but rather keeping our services at a standstill. For all the talk of health public finances, we are not building up our health service.

“It is the public who suffer: more than 100,000 patients last year waiting long hours on trolleys in our EDs and 608 patients today alone. In 2025, just under half of all people aged 75+ attending our EDs had to wait nine hours or more and that there was no improvement in this from 2024. That tells an appalling story of an acute hospital system that is at overcapacity and has too few step down beds.

“The Minister must urgently clarify now whether the Acute Hospital Inpatient Bed Capacity Expansion Plan is defunct.

“If it is not, she must clarify that this plan is fully funded from the revised NDP to deliver the 2,900 new inpatient beds between 2025 and 2031.

“The Minister must further outline a roadmap to meet expected capacity for the decade after. It is unacceptable that we only see 143 acute beds completed this year. This is a snail’s pace in delivering bed capacity. It appears the Government is already behind and will not meet its own targets by 2031.

“ERSI research has made clear that we would need 330 beds per annum and that we would need to expand public acute hospital capacity by at least 40% over the next 15 years.

“The IHCA has said that we would need more than 800 extra beds per annum. More than 20% of our population will be over 65 by 2040 and with a population of more than 5.5 million people. We are in a ticking time bomb if we do not build capacity now.

“The reality is that the revised NDP simply cannot deliver this substantial additional bed capacity, electronic health records and a new national maternity hospital. The Minister for Health frankly lost the argument with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform for adequate capital funding.

“We need a whole-of-Government approach to ensure that the necessary health capacity is built. This includes streamlining capital spending processes, creating a clear roadmap to additional bed capacity and investing in public hospital infrastructure. Patients deserve timely access to care and unfortunately, this capital plan is not enough to deliver that.”