“Bespoke” housing measures are needed to keep nurses in Ireland and address retention crises. 

That’s according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) following the release of Budget 2024. 

Minister Paschal Donohoe announced €22.5 billion would be invested in the Department of Health. 

An additional €808 million in core funding will be provided to the health service to meet the needs of an ageing and growing population. 

A further €1.23 billion will be allocated to the National Development Plan for infrastructure in the health sector. 

A new health resilience fund is being established to meet the pressures caused by rising demand and inflation, but no details of this have yet been provided. 

INMO General-Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha welcomed the introduction of a resilience fund but criticised the lack of details.

“We are disappointed that specific figures have not been provided detailing exactly how the Safe Staffing Framework will be implemented into 2024,” she said. 

“We are very fearful that we will not see safe staffing across all acute hospitals in the year ahead.” 

'From Dublin to Dingle'

Ms Ní Sheaghdha said one of the “biggest barriers” to retaining and recruiting nurses and midwives in Ireland is the “availability and affordability of housing”. 

“Tax relief on rent is one part of the puzzle but we need bespoke measures to allow essential workers live where they are needed to work,” she said. 

“Young nurses are spending up to 75% on their monthly wages on rent. This is not sustainable. 

“If we want to keep young nurses and midwives here in Ireland then we need more ambitious measures to make it possible for them to live near the hospitals that they want to work in, whether that be in Dublin or Dingle.” 

A surgeon, doctor and nurses walking in a hospital corridor in October 2017. Picture by: Hero Images Inc. / Alamy Stock Photo

The Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) said Budget 2024 was a “missed opportunity” to address the needs of the population. 

“Our health services never recovered sufficiently from years of austerity and today’s Budget measures will mean we face the ongoing challenge of trying to deliver care to patients in a service that has insufficient capacity,” it said. 

“Before the Budget, the IMO warned that radical and sustainable investment was the only viable option for a health system that has been chronically under-funded and under-resourced to meet the needs of patients.”