Ireland is to attract more Kenyan nurses and midwives to the health system as a result of an agreement being developed between the two countries, the Health Minister has said. Stephen Donnelly he said.

The minister said he was aware that the loss of key health personnel could be a problem for less wealthy countries, but the two governments would work towards an agreement that was ethical and in line with WHO and EMCDDA guidelines.

Under increasing financial pressure in recent years, the Kenyan government has struggled to provide employment opportunities for many of its health graduates and was recently forced to cut public spending in a number of areas to secure additional funding from the Monetary Fund International.

The UK signed a deal with the country allowing greater movement of workers in 2021, and Germany followed suit last month. There were also agreements with Austria and Saudi Arabia.

“I am aware that there have been worrying global trends in labor migration in recent years which have seen higher income countries benefit disproportionately from the mobility of health professionals, while the benefits to the country of migration may be comparatively greater small,” he said. Mr Donnelly, working on the Irish deal with Kenya, was announced on Monday.

“By working with Kenya, in line with our shared principles and the WHO-OECD best practice guidelines, we can inform a new generation of fair and ethical bilateral agreements on health labor migration,” he said.

In a statement, the Department of Health said “the aim of this collaboration between Irish and Canadian officials will focus on workforce planning in the health sector, addressing the shortage of nurses and midwives in Ireland, while investing in the continued development of these professions in Kenya. The bilateral agreement will help grow the global nursing and midwifery workforce in a managed and sustainable way.”

Ireland’s healthcare shortage remains significant and the Parliamentary Budget Office estimated earlier this year that the country would need an additional 13,000 by 2041 to maintain current rates.

To reach the figure, he suggested, Ireland would need to train or import around 2,000 additional nurses annually. Mr Donnelly said increasing the number of training places remained a priority for the government and said progress had been made to date.

“Ireland is committed to developing a sustainable health and care workforce, including nurses and midwives. We have made significant progress in expanding the number of undergraduate places. Ensuring we retain our graduates and offer attractive career paths is a priority for me.”

Three quarters of the more than 6,000 nurses and midwives who registered with the Irish system for the first time last year were educated abroad, with more than 3,000 coming from India.

The health sector, meanwhile, accounted for almost a third of the 30,174 work permits issued by the Government in the first nine months of this year. At 9,907, the number of work permits issued to healthcare workers was nearly double the number granted in the technology sector.

Just over 10,000 permits across all sectors were granted to workers in India, while those from Nigeria, Zimbabwe and Ghana – all countries where Irish nurse recruitment has increased in recent years – accounted for 750, 776 and 776 respectively. , 288. The equivalent number in Kenya by the end of September was 140.

Asked previously about the trend, Irish Organization of Nurses and Midwives (INMO) Secretary General Phil Ní Sheaghdha said “a country like Ireland, because of its bad policy, because of its lack of investment, is now going into these countries and taking away its essential workers”. She said the minister said he didn’t want to do that, but it was still happening.

Meanwhile, INMO is polling its members on industrial action over staff shortages.