Fine Gael TD Naoise Ó Muirí has called on the government to increase the recruitment of public nurses.
The Dublin Bay North TD said that “fast action” is needed on the issue and that the HSE simply lifting the recruitment freeze isn’t enough.
Ó Muirí welcomed the government’s commitment to hire more nurses who specialise in public health nursing, but said that action needs to be taken sooner rather than later.
Speaking in the Dáil, Ó Muirí said that constituents in Kilester contacted him after they could not see a nurse in either Kilester and had to be sent to Millmount in Drumcondra for the first check.
The family were then informed that neither Kilester nor Millmount had the facilities to carry out a second check.
Ó Muirí cited that a local development company in Coolock had received feedback that people in Coolock and surrounding areas are not receiving checks.
“Those areas are marked by economic and social disadvantage. The last thing we need is to load issues relating to health checks and developmental issues onto the backs of hard-pressed families who live in the areas in question,” he said.
The Fine Gael TD raised the issue with Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment Niamh Smyth.
Fianna Fáil TD Smyth said, “the government remains committed to providing continued investment in the health workforce, including public health nurses, and ensuring that this service is available to those who need it.”
Smyth noted there are currently 1,511 whole-time equivalent, WTE, public health nurses employed in the HSE with a further 27 posts were provided for in budget 2025.
“The Department of Health has requested that the HSE expedite recruitment to these posts in areas where child health developmental assessments have been impacted,” she added.
Ó Muirí said “the importance of public health nurses cannot easily be overstated. These dedicated healthcare professionals are vital in ensuring good early childhood development and allay the concerns of anxious families.”
“Measures encouraging more people to consider a career as a public health nurse, such as the Public Health Nurse Sponsorship Programme are essential, and need to be a top priority for this government.”
He said he would be raising the issues with Fine Gael’s Minister for Health, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill.
“It is vital that we build on the success of schemes like the Public Health Nurse Sponsorship Programme and we continue to the level of staffing necessary to meet the demand for these critical services in communities across Ireland.”
He said that the numbers numbers in the Irish healthcare industry are “pretty stark.”
“The health service capacity review of 2018 envisaged a big increase in the service by 2021. Baseline capacity was meant to be 2,000 public health nurses nationally by 2026. We are at just over 1,500, which is almost 500 short in terms of where the service is meant to be by now.”
Ó Muirí said, “I acknowledge there are challenges in recruitment and in keeping public health nurses, but it is a serious issue now and has to be dealt with straight away, whether through the NTPF or some other mechanism.”
Ó Muirí was elected to the Dáil last November, succeeding Richard Bruton in the role.
The HSE introduced an embargo on recruitment in 2007 at the behest of the Progressive Democrats, who controlled the Health ministry at the time.
Then-Minister for Health Mary Harney justified the embargo by saying the HSE needed to break even.
In 2015, then-Minister for Health Leo Varadkar acknowledged that “there was a requirement to reduce public service numbers and maximise savings in the public service from the time of the downturn in the economy.”
“The HSE introduced an embargo on recruitment in 2007, and this was followed by the moratorium on recruitment and promotion in the public sector in 2008. The HSE has had the capacity to recruit where it is necessary, to deliver front-line services,” he said at the time.
Former Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly stood by the embargo last May in response to a question put to him by Sinn Féin’s health spokesperson David Cullinane, saying “nobody would want to put an embargo in place, but the HSE was hiring so many people and it was not responding to a more graduated approach such that, ultimately, thousands of healthcare workers for whom there was no funding from the Government were being hired by the HSE.”
“Unfortunately, therefore, a coarser measure, the embargo, was required. We do not want it to be in place and I am working with the government to resolve it as soon as I can.
The embargo was lifted in July 2024.
However, Ó Muirí is keen to prioritise the staffing issues in the Dublin region.
“These parents are worried about it, and it is a concern for them, as she will understand, that they get access to a service and to those checks again.”