Hospital Services Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-26 ============================================================ Niall Collins (FF), Limerick County I again thank the Senators for raising the important issue and giving me an opportunity to highlight how committed the Government is to the progressive development of St. Luke's General Hospital in Kilkenny. Significant additional resources have been allocated to the hospital in recent years to meet the needs of patients. Staffing at the hospital is now approximately 1,447 whole-time equivalent posts, an increase of 22% since December 2020. The hospital's budget has increased considerably in the same period. Funding allocated to the hospital has increased by 51%. There is a strong commitment to the health capital investment at St. Luke's hospital and a number of projects are being progressed in the capital plan, which was published on 24 February. The positive progress made in recent years to increase the level of services at St. Luke's hospital in Kilkenny is a testament to the Government's commitment to the hospital and to the people of Kilkenny, Carlow and the south east in general. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-02-26/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:42+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-02-26