Niamh Humphries
@niamhhumphries.bsky.social
Senior Lecturer @ RCSI GSM | health workforce researcher | health worker migration | health worker retention | qualitative methods |doctorretention.eu
It’s important to protect migrant healthcare workers from exploitation during the recruitment process www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2026...
Zimbabwean workers awarded €30k each after arriving in Ireland to find they had no jobs
Workplace Relations Commission awarded maximum amount available citing ‘particularly egregious’ treatment
irishtimes.com
I don't want tax cuts. I want services that work for all of us. What good is extra money in my pocket if I'm terrified to go out to my local hospital in an emegency. Or if a large proportion of people in my city are living in poverty or homelessness or with addiction.
RTÉ News@news.rte.ie · 6d agoThe Government has emphasised income tax changes to "give people more of their own money" as it revealed Budget 2027
Ageing population in Ireland will see rise of up to 58 per cent in need for family care
Ageing population in Ireland will see rise of up to 58 per cent in need for family care
Report says demographic change will put increasing pressure on family carers and formal care services
irishtimes.com
Limits on non-EEA workers relaxed ‘temporarily’ to tackle staff shortages in healthcare www.irishtimes.com/politics/202...
Limits on non-EEA workers relaxed ‘temporarily’ to tackle staff shortages in healthcare
Enterprise Minister Peter Burke will tell Cabinet colleagues change will last until more Irish staff are trained
irishtimes.com
It is difficult to remember a time over the past few decades when hospital overcrowding was never an issue, writes Health Correspondent Fergal Bowers
What will this winter trolley season bring?
On any given day, there remain hundreds of patents waiting for admission to a hospital bed, placed on a trolley, chair, or other area of a hospital, writes Health Correspondent Fergal Bowers.
rte.ie
There is something devastating about the words ‘Ireland doesn’t have a place for me’ www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2026...
Diarmaid Ferriter: There is something devastating about the words ‘Ireland doesn’t have a place for me’
Over two thirds of 18- to 24-year-olds say they are considering a move abroad, and 71% believe life would be better elsewhere
irishtimes.com
Financial deficit in health service could hit €1bn, Dáil Public Accounts Committee hears www.irishtimes.com/politics/oir...
Financial deficit in health service could hit €1bn, Dáil Public Accounts Committee hears
Scrapping private practice in public hospitals to cost HSE €140m
irishtimes.com
The HSE spent €800 million on agency staff last year. . . www.rte.ie/radio/radio1...
PAC told health spending expected to continue overshooting budgets
In a brief note to the Oireachtas Public Accounts committee, The HSE warned that annual overruns are likely to continue. For the details, Public Policy Correspondent of The Irish Times, Martin Wall.
rte.ie
And where will the staff come from? Given the Governments increasingly unwelcoming & irrational approach to migration, how will we attract the health & social care staff we need? Why would they come here, when other countries offer a more welcoming and secure future? www.rte.ie/news/ireland...
Ireland needs to prepare now for ageing population - NHI
Nursing Homes Ireland has said Ireland is running out of time to prepare for an ageing population, calling on the Government to convene a national dialogue on ageing "without delay".
rte.ie
As our Government continues to try to make Ireland a less welcoming and attractive destination - despite how badly we need inward migration, especially for our labour market, 70% of young adults are considering emigrating. Are we facing a period of net outward migration? That world be disastrous
‘I fell in love with Ireland’: Joy at citizenship ceremony despite looming new rules www.irishtimes.com/ireland/soci...
‘I fell in love with Ireland’: Joy at citizenship ceremony despite looming new rules
The first of six citizenship ceremonies began in Dublin on Thursday
irishtimes.com
Fintan O'Toole on the proposed citizenship changes 'If you’re caring for patients in an Irish hospital since you arrived here from India in 2020, the Government wants you to know that citizenship may or may not be granted, reluctantly and with bad grace, in 2028' www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2026...
Fintan O'Toole: Living in Milwaukee with a Mayo granny automatically makes you Irish. Living here doesn’t
We have twice as many new citizens coming through the channel that demands no actual connection to Ireland
irishtimes.com
Sinead O’Sullivan: ‘Ireland’s Government, unable to govern, chooses to subsidise instead. In this instance, it’s helping, or talking about helping, people to purchase homes instead of actually doing the thing that needs to be done – building any’ www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2026...
Sinéad O'Sullivan: All the help-to-buy schemes, grants and loans do one thing. And it’s not help buyers
Phenomenon of setting out to financially help people only to leave them worse off is so commonplace in Irish economic policy that I have given it a name: the failure premium
irishtimes.com
Dozens of consultants offered posts without start dates due to health cost overruns www.irishtimes.com/health/2026/...
Dozens of consultants offered posts without start dates due to health cost overruns
‘Growing and ageing population requires realistic budget ... to deliver timely and appropriate care,’ says Irish Medical Organisation
irishtimes.com
‘for immigrants in Ireland it will mean more years of uncertainty and isolation, more gratuitous punishment for no greater crime than wanting to be Irish’ www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2026...
Jim O’Callaghan can look to UK to see if making life hard for immigrants helps integration
Same political parties who once let wealthy buy Irish residency now want tighter rules for others who live here
irishtimes.com
‘The State’s dragging-out of the apology adds layers of hurt to what survivors have already been through. That refusal to own the failed responsibilities of the past, and to put it right now, erodes us as a nation and undermines the good we are capable of’ www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2026...
Opinion: Sorry shouldn't be such a hard word for the State to say to Thalidomide survivors
Politicians seem caring in person, but the process continues to be dragged out, adding to the pain of people who have already endured so much
irishtimes.com
‘Sláintecare seems to want to increase access to public settings, but as a policy, it is accepting of healthcare inequity more generally (because only those with money can pay for private healthcare).’ Great piece on Slaintecare by Myles Balfe today: www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2026...
Sláintecare is meant to move us towards universal healthcare, so why has this not happened?
Private health insurance firms are entrenched behind slick advertising, reminding people they will be safeguarded as long as they can pay
irishtimes.com
When health facilities, health workers, medical transport and supplies come under attack, those vulnerable, sick, and seeking life-saving care lose all hope of healing. Every attack on health care is an attack on people’s ability to survive and recover. Stop attacks on health care. #ActForHumanity
School counselling service shelved because Government prefers cheapest option www.irishtimes.com/opinion/lett...
School counselling service shelved because Government prefers cheapest option
Despite working on it, I learned that the pilot scheme was being shelved in The Irish Times
irishtimes.com
The HSE was broken up into six regions two years ago to deliver better care. Is it working? www.irishtimes.com/health/2026/...
The HSE was broken up into six regions two years ago to deliver better care. Is it working?
Restructuring Ireland’s health service was meant to integrate services locally, but concerns have been highlighted by regional managers and the HSE board
irishtimes.com
I’m Begging You: Never Write With A.I. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/04/o... ‘We become better writers by the constant effort that mundane writing demands. We become better thinkers by investing into that writing a degree of attention we’d never give it if we relinquished the task to A.I’
Opinion | I’m Begging You: Never Write With A.I.
It’s bad for your brain and worse for democracy.
nytimes.com
Ireland’s postcode health lottery: Living on the ‘wrong’ side of HSE area boundary www.irishtimes.com/health/your-...
Ireland’s postcode health lottery: Living on the ‘wrong’ side of HSE area boundary
Living on ‘wrong’ side of HSE area boundary means Tipperary man cannot access nearest specialist neurorehabilitation team
irishtimes.com
Why are patients being asked to avoid UHL’s emergency department? www.irishtimes.com/health/2026/...
Why are patients being asked to avoid UHL’s emergency department?
Almost 1,000 people attended the Limerick hospital over a three-day period last week, an ‘exceptionally high level of activity for any time of the year’
irishtimes.com
GP shortages: Where are the most acute problems across the country? www.irishtimes.com/health/2026/...
GP shortages: Where are the most acute problems across the country?
The representative body for Irish GPs warns of three ‘emerging pressure points’
irishtimes.com
'Concerns were raised at the outset about the possibility of conflicts of interest and the creation of perverse incentives whereby doctors and staff involved with third-party insourcing businesses stood to benefit from long public waiting lists' www.irishtimes.com/opinion/edit...
The Irish Times view on insourcing in the health service: not a longer-term solution
The Minister’s dilemma is that winding down the practice could add to waiting lists
irishtimes.com
I strongly believe in giving the man a chance. But keeping Shabana Mahmood as Home Secretary suggests the vicious attacks on immigrants and refugees, and self-defeating attempts to outrun the far right, are likely to continue. Which is pretty damn depressing. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Read these words from 100 years ago about immigrants in Britain – and see how history is chillingly repeating itself | George Monbiot
Shabana Mahmood’s new rights clampdown looks outlandish until we remember that this kind of hardline action is part of our country’s fabric, says George Monbiot
theguardian.com
