HSE spent €16.6m on storage and destruction of expired covid vaccines and PPE, committee hears

Storage of PPE — such as gowns and masks — had cost the HSE €8.85m in total since the end of the pandemic up until the end of 2025. Picture: iStock

The HSE incurred costs of €16.6m last year due to the write-off, storage, and destruction of covid vaccines and personal protective equipment, an Oireachtas committee has heard.

The Public Accounts Committee was told the health service sustained charges of €8.4m at the end of 2025 for covid vaccines which had passed their expiry, or which were no longer considered to be clinically safe to use.

Comptroller and Auditor General Seamus McCarthy told the committee a further €1.5m in charges were incurred by the HSE last year on foot of storage costs for obsolete PPE.

Storage of such equipment — such as gowns and masks — had cost the HSE €8.85m in total since the end of the pandemic up until the end of 2025.

A further €6.7m was spent by the HSE on disposing of its expired covid-era stocks “in an environmentally secure manner using a specialist service provider”.

The covid figures were revealed at the PAC as the HSE was grilled by committee members over the perilous state of the health service’s finances — with its non-capital expenditure in 2025 having exceeded income by just over €1bn.

Cost of agency staff

Particular attention was given to the cost of agency staff, with the HSE’s chief financial officer Michael Lane noting the executive had begun to “rely too much” on the use of non-core staff.

Agency workers have for many years been used across the health services to plug gaps in rosters related to sickness absences or holiday leave, and often because no permanent staff can be found for certain specialised roles.

However, agency staff are typically paid at a level 30% higher than permanent contracted HSE workers, leading to higher costs.

“Our extreme reliance on agency is one that’s incredible,” Mr Lane said, adding incurring costs as high as the €833m spent on non-contract staff in 2025 was “not sustainable”.

He said the HSE was now aiming to reduce its reliance on agency staff with a maximum target of €720m to be spent on non-contract shifts in 2026.

“That has to get reduced even further next year,” he said.

Public-only consultant contracts

The committee also heard the HSE’s move to public-only consultant contracts had led to a sharp drop in the levels of private income being received, leading to a loss of roughly €140m year on year.

“Structurally we’re going to have to rebalance that, and we’re going to have to find a way to do without that income... to take account of that policy decision,” Mr Lane said.

The committee heard the HSE’s highest-paid consultant in 2025 received €910,000 in remuneration, with much of that figure resulting from backlogged payments dating from 2023 and 2024.

Mr McCarthy said the consultant in question, who is based at Cavan General Hospital and whose base salary would be roughly €290,000, had been paid some €586,000 in 2025, adding, however, that figure only accounted for claims made over the first five months of the year.

In terms of the heightened payments, HSE chief executive Anne O’Connor said there were “a small number of specialities” such as radiology “where this arises more than others”.