Budget 2026: How will €1.5bn increase in health spending impact in Cork?

Budget 2026 has promised more funding, more healthcare staff, more hospital beds, and more nursing home places — but it is not yet clear how many will be in Cork.

Health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill announced details of the €27.4bn in funding for health in 2026 at a press conference yesterday, where she said the record allocation of current expenditure represents a €1.5bn, or 6.2% increase, on 2025 funding.

No breakdown for funding by region has been provided for the six health regions, though an additional 3,370 whole-time equivalent staff in the Health Service Executive (HSE) overall was promised.

There were 82 people on trolleys in Cork yesterday — 51 in Cork University Hospital, 23 in Mercy University Hospital, and eight in Bantry General Hospital.

Healthcare unions have expressed concern that not enough staffing will be provided to address persistently high figures across the country.

Concern

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has expressed concern about this figure.

“The fact that the Government only intends to hire an additional 3,300 staff into our public health service next year demonstrates a lack of awareness into the severe staffing crisis in our hospitals and in the community,” a spokesperson said.

“In cutting the Vat rate for the hospitality sector, the Government has failed to heed last week’s advice from the Fiscal Advisory Council, who said that the Government could hire 11,400 additional nurses rather than cut Vat for the hospitality sector.”

From December 2024 to the end of August 2025, just under 300 healthcare staff have joined the HSE across Cork and Kerry, according to HSE workforce reports.

INMO general secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said: “Our members are about to work another extremely busy autumn and winter period, where their workplaces are not staffed correctly.

“The HSE has confirmed that they have left 6,000 funded posts vacant in 2025.”

Ms Ní Sheaghdha referred to the huge variations in both acute and community care across health regions, which she said was “not acceptable”. In the area of community care, she gave the example of occupational therapy and speech and language therapy in HSE South-West, which is made up of Cork and Kerry, as examples of poor performance when compared to elsewhere in the county.

“We have to ensure that our underperforming regions are learning from the best,” she said.

No breakdown

An additional 220 acute hospital beds have been promised, along with 280 community beds, 500 more nursing home places, and an extra €1.7m home support hours.

No breakdown as to where these will be located has been provided.

However, the figure includes those in the new National Children’s Hospital, set to open next year, suggesting there will only be a small increase, if any, in hospital beds for Cork.

Between 2025 and 2028, 294 additional hospital beds are planned for the South-West, according to the acute in-patient hospital bed expansion plan released in May 2024.

One measure which could see new staff in Cork was announced by the minister of state with responsibility for mental health, Mary Butler.

She explained that the HSE is to establish specialist nursing teams in the emergency departments of all model four hospitals, including Cork University Hospital, out-of-hours, in addition to the establishment of a new crisis response pathway for children and young people staffed by specialist children and adolescent mental health service (Camhs) doctors.

Ms Carroll MacNeill also mentioned completing surgical hubs as part of her budget speech.

Pushed back

The Echo revealed in February that CUH’s planned surgical hub’s opening date had been pushed back to mid-2026, with the project originally having been planned for 2024.

Another promise in Budget 2026 was 1,100 extra student places across all health professions.

Again, there was no breakdown of which regions or universities would benefit.

Ms Carroll MacNeill added: “Investment alone is not the answer.

“Our health budget has essentially doubled since 2014, so we have to ensure we’re getting value for money. A priority is to reduce the health service’s reliance on agency staff, which is too high at the moment. Our dependency and spend is not sustainable.”

Cost

Agency staff — healthcare professionals who work for staffing agencies and are assigned to healthcare facilities on a temporary basis — cost a total of €31.2m last year across six Cork hospitals, The Echo recently revealed.

A HSE South-West spokesperson explained that full details and breakdown of the HSE South-West Budget 2026 will be advised in the HSE’s National Service Plan 2026 “due for publication in the coming months”.

The Department of Health has made “an indicative budget allocation of €2.002bn to HSE South-West, a 10% increase from the 2025 allocation of €1.812bn” to support both service delivery and strategic development across acute hospitals and community care, they added.