Minister for Health publishes paper on Ireland’s Future Health and Social Care Workforce
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From: Department of Health
- Published on: 23 December 2025
- Last updated on: 23 December 2025
The Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill TD has today published a paper on “Ireland’s Future Health and Social Care Workforce”.
The paper forms part of the Department’s long-term health and social care workforce planning projections and the work underway to plan for future workforce needs of the health and social care sectors. This planning is necessary in the context of a growing and ageing population, chronic diseases levels rising and our high reliance on foreign educated workers amid a global shortage of healthcare workers.
The paper shows that there is an urgent need to build future supply of healthcare workers and sets out an evidence-based strategic direction for the health and social care workforce for the next 15 years.
The Economic and Social Research Institute Capacity Reviews commissioned by the Department of Health inform the demand projections within this paper and provide a crucial evidence base. Projections and gap analysis show an expectation of a shortfall across health and social care staff categories modelled.
The analysis also demonstrates that with the implementation of planned health policies and workforce reforms there will be an average annual growth rate required of approximately 1.4% to 2% from 2023 to 2040 for the professions modelled. Population demographics are the major driver for this increased demand.
A whole of Government response is required to support the Higher Education Institutions to significantly expand student capacity to meet the future needs of the health, disability and education sectors.
Minister Carroll MacNeill said:
“This paper is an important step to ensure that we have the appropriate size of health and social care workforce in place to deliver Programme for Government commitments and Sláintecare 2025+ . Sláintecare reform is transforming how healthcare is delivered in Ireland, building towards equal access to services for every person based on their need and not their ability to pay.
“Our health and social care workforce is our strongest asset. Every day, across a wide range of settings, they go to extraordinary lengths to deliver care to thousands of people. However, our modelling projections are showing that if we continue on our current trajectory, we will not have a sufficient number of health and social care workers in the future.
“In recent years, significant investment has been made in the workforce. Substantial progress has been made to build capacity and improve the availability of health professionals to support integrated care across the entire health service and to deliver on modernised care pathways.
“Developing a dynamic, agile workforce and increasing the domestic supply of health and social care professionals will be essential to ensuring an economically sustainable workforce that can meet the health needs of our growing and ageing population.”
Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, James Lawless said:
“I welcome the publication of the paper on Ireland’s Future Health and Social Care Workforce, which sets out a clear, evidence-based vision for meeting health and social care workforce needs over the next 15 years. My Department strongly supports this long-term approach and the shared ambition to expand domestic education and training capacity. Since 2022, more than 1,300 additional training places have been delivered across priority health and social care disciplines, with a further 600 places on track for 2026.
“Delivering this vision will require continued cross-Government collaboration and sustained investment. Significant funding has been secured for 2025–2026 and beyond, and my officials and the HEA are progressing further expressions of interest to the sector to expand training capacity where it is most needed. I remain committed to working with the Minister for Health to ensure we have the skilled workforce required to deliver high-quality health and social care services into the future.”
Minister for Children, Disability and Equality, Norma Foley said:
“The supply of Health and Social Care Professionals (HSCPs), including key therapy roles, is crucial to the government's vision of delivering a step change in disability services. Increasing the number of social workers and social care workers is also vital for the work of Tusla, the Child and Family Agency. Good progress has been made already on providing 430 additional places for health and social care professionals between this year and next year. I am committed to working collectively with Minister Carroll MacNeill and Minister Lawless to ensure that there is a strong pipeline of health and social care professionals trained in Ireland to meet the needs of children and disabled people over the next 15 years."
Minister for Education and Youth, Hildegarde Naughton said:
“As Minister for Education and Youth I am pleased to see the publication of this paper, which highlights the workforce requirements for health and social care professionals for the coming years. Initially the Education Therapy Service (ETS) will provide Occupational Therapy and Speech and Language Therapy to children and young people with the greatest level of need in our school system. Aiming to ensure the best possible outcomes for all children and young people, this step change for government requires increased numbers of health and social care professionals in our system over the coming years to deliver a quality service that is coordinated with existing children’s services delivered through health.
“In line with the Programme for Government 2025 it is also crucial that we see an increase in the number of Educational Psychologists available to our schools to support the wellbeing and inclusion of all children and young people and this paper is an essential step in seeking to increase supply.”
‘Ireland’s Future Health and Social Care Workforce’ sets out how the Department of Health is taking a comprehensive approach to long-term health and social care workforce planning. The actions within it align with the “Framework for Action on the Health and Care Workforce in the World Health Organization (WHO) European Region 2023–2030”.
This paper sets out twenty actions under the following five interconnected pillars:
- Plan: Use evidence and long-term workforce projections to meet future workforce needs.
- Build: Build future workforce supply through the expansion of student places and match the investment in workforce with the needs of the population.
- Optimise Performance: Reform, maximise capacity and optimise health service performance to support the development of innovative models of care as envisaged under Sláintecare. Having the right mix of healthcare professionals with the right skills, supported by the right technology is essential.
- Recruit and Retain: Consider tailored interventions to improve recruitment and retention. The same strategies may have different effects on different age groups, life stages, professions, locations and genders, and retention efforts need to be tailored accordingly.
- Invest: According to the WHO, targeted investment that delivers a sustainable workforce should be regarded as an investment for the future and not a cost.
Notes
The paper “Ireland’s Future Health and Social Care Workforce” is available here, along with an overview document and a technical note.