Jennifer Carroll MacNeill says further increased budgets is ‘totally unrealistic’
11:22, 26 Aug 2026Updated 11:27, 26 Aug 2026
(Image: Sam Boal/Collins Photos)
The row over staffing levels, funding and patient safety at Cork University Hospital has stepped up a gear with the Minister for Health claiming the budget is there – but needs to be ‘managed better’.
Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill had a sharp response for the CEO of CUH, Jennifer Kearney, who last week informed the HSE of her increasing concerns over patient safety risks at Munster’s biggest hospital.
The hospital boss warned it was “not safe to enter the winter period with the level of staffing uncertainty that currently exists” and set out the argument for increased funding to cover staffing and rota issues.
However, her publically expressed concerns have not gone down well with the Health Minister, with Ms Carroll MacNeill pointing out earlier today that over the last five to six years, staffing at CUH has increased by 40%, while its budget has risen 108%.
The Minister also said that CUH was already running significantly over budget for 2026 and this was an unsustainable approach.
Minister Carroll MacNeill told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland,: “We cannot continue to increase health budgets by 10% and 15% and 20% – that is totally unrealistic.”
“They (CUH) have to manage within their budgets and other regions and other hospitals are.”
The Minister said HSE southwest had hired more people in 2025 than any other region, adding: “In fact, they (CUH) are over their budget, significantly over their budget. But Limerick is within its budget and has hired and maintained its budget, which is a finite budget each year.”
“Cork has had a very significant increase in staffing over the last five to six years of over 40%.
“I am sorry to say that the increased activity is only 16% and there is more to do in Cork to get the best value and the best deployment of all of the resources that it has been given.”
“There was an increased budget available, an increased budget, not a stay still budget, an increased budget.
“So you have to make choices, if they got an increased budget so that they could hire more staff, then have to choose where are we going to put those staff.”
“We have to get better value, we have to get more from that, and we have to get the intelligent and strategic deployment of all of those people right across the region, right across the country for the benefit of patients,” she added.