Independent TD for Offaly Carol Nolan has highlighted newly‑released HSE figures which confirm that the more than 13,400 GP sessional clinics that were delivered over 2024 and 2025 for residents in International Protection Accommodation Service centres and for Beneficiaries of Temporary Protection came at a cost of over €6 million.
The figures come directly from two parliamentary replies issued to her by the HSE’s National Social Inclusion Office.
In the first reply, the HSE confirms that participating GPs are remunerated “on a sessional basis at €450.00 per session (duration of three hours)” for clinics delivered under the Refugee and Applicants Seeking Protection (RASP) Service Delivery Model.
In the second reply, the HSE provides month‑by‑month data showing the number of GP sessional clinics delivered across the country over the past two years.
Deputy Nolan says that when these two pieces of information are read together, the scale of spending becomes immediately clear.
In 2024, the HSE delivered 7,074 GP sessional clinics, while a further 6,413 clinics were provided in 2025. Applying the HSE’s own stated rate of €450 per clinic, the cost for 2024 amounts to €3,183,300, with 2025 costing €2,885,850. The combined estimated expenditure for the two‑year period therefore stands at €6,069,150.
“This level of spending is occurring in parallel with the HSE’s acknowledgement that GP capacity remains insufficient to meet demand and that the sessional clinic model is being used to “maximise GP capacity” because many arriving applicants cannot be assigned to a standard GMS panel,” said Deputy Nolan,
“Indeed, we know that approximately 6,000 people contacted the HSE this year alone because they could not a GP to take them on. Yet here we have a system that managed to deliver than 40,000 GP clinical hours over two years. This raises legitimate concerns about the long‑term viability of a system that is now heavily dependent on temporary clinics, agency staff and a constantly shifting population across multiple regions.”
The Offaly TD said she also finds it deeply concerning that no review of the Sessional Clinic model or its costs has been undertaken “despite the scale of public expenditure involved and the complexity of the needs being managed.”
“Once again, we see the consequences of Government‑driven policy decisions that have placed extraordinary pressure on GP services, particularly in rural counties where capacity was already stretched. The Government cannot continue to ignore the financial and operational realities of what is happening on the ground.”
“I will continue pressing the Minister for Health and the Minister for Justice to provide a full breakdown of costs associated with migrant health supports and to explain how the State intends to manage demand without further undermining core GP services relied upon by local communities,” concluded Deputy Nolan.