HSE has spent €85m on private home care since 2023

The HSE has spent nearly €85m on private providers to deliver home support services for older people since the start of 2023, and the figure is increasing sharply each year.

A HSE spokesperson described home support as a “highly valued” service which allows older people to remain living in their own homes and communities for longer, and enables many to return home following hospital admission.

“Our population is growing and it is also ageing and this means that demand for home support services is projected to increase substantially,” the spokesperson said.

In 2023, the HSE spent €15.75m on private providers of home support services in Cork, which rose to almost €22m in 2024 and €29.7m in 2025.

From January to June this year, €17.5m had already been spent on the service, suggesting costs could increase to €35m this year, an increase of 123% in three years.

The figures were provided to Sinn Féin’s Thomas Gould who criticised the government for the substantial increase.

“Instead of investing in our public health system, they are subsidising private companies and increasing reliance on these,” he said.

“These figures are on top of the millions our hospitals and primary care centres are forced to spend on agency staff. The reality is that many of this spend is only necessary because the HSE are not sanctioned to recruit for these posts.

“An element of private care, in emergency or temporary situations, may be needed but to spend millions on it every single year shows that this has become a sticking plaster over the crisis in our health service.”