The healthcare sector is facing staff shortages in the coming year with long-term vacancies remaining unfilled, a report by Irish recruiter Excel Healthcare said.
The Excel Healthcare Salary Guide for 2026 found costs for private providers were increasing as much as 10 per cent due to a rise in the minimum wage and it said providers were “struggling to match candidates’ expectations around pay, flexibility and workload”.
It found the sector was under pressure as demand continued to outstrip supply. This is combined with challenges in recruitment and retention. Excel credited this to requirements to balance the number of non-EU staff, challenges in securing visas and housing shortages.
Amid challenges with recruitment, average pay in the sector has increased in the past year as firms fight to attract staff. Nurses’ salaries now range from €44,000 to €48,000 depending on experience, with healthcare assistants earning between €33,000 and €36,000.
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The largest pay hikes, the guide found, were for more junior healthcare staff. The upper level pay of senior healthcare assistant positions has risen from €17.50 to €20 an hour, a 14.3 per cent increase.
“These increases are improving retention, but they are also putting pressure on smaller independent providers already dealing with rising operational costs,” Martina Young, the director of Excel Healthcare, said.
She said the gap between public and private sector pay levels was making it “even harder for private employers to compete”.
Excel Healthcare found the number of nurses and midwives employed in Ireland increased by 5.5 per cent in the past year to about 76,500. A further 26,000 doctors were also employed, but the report identified a large number of roles that have remained unfilled.
The recruitment group said “rising burnout, high living costs and the challenges of attracting and retaining international staff continue to impact service capacity”.
Ms Young warned that smaller nursing homes were closing amid challenges.
“Several smaller homes have closed in recent years due to the Fair Deal Scheme’s failure to keep pace with inflation,” she said, noting that larger nursing home groups were “absorbing some of the demand, but capacity remains short”.
Amid projections for greatly increased requirements for long-term care beds and home support hours in the coming years, nursing home lobby groups are calling for additional funding.
“Without that, operators will continue to struggle to keep services sustainable,” she said.
