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📍 Dublin, Ireland — Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill has signaled that expanding healthcare infrastructure will take precedence over recruitment in the upcoming national budget. Speaking ahead of Budget 2025, she emphasized that increasing physical capacity is essential to improving surgical services and reducing waiting lists.
“What we need is extra capacity, we need extra infrastructure. There is no point in recruiting extra surgeons if they don’t have a place to do extra surgical activity,” Carroll MacNeill stated, underscoring the need for investment in hospital facilities and equipment.
The Department of Health is expected to receive a record allocation, with funding earmarked for new elective hospitals, additional acute care beds, and upgrades to maternity and mental health services. While recruitment remains part of the broader strategy, the minister stressed that staffing must be matched with adequate space and resources to be effective.
Healthcare unions and advocacy groups have welcomed the focus on infrastructure but continue to urge the government to address persistent staffing shortages and overcrowding in emergency departments.
Final budget details will be announced in October, with the health sector poised to receive one of the largest increases in public spending.
