Private nursing homes say they are extremely worried at the rate at which they are losing frontline staff to the HSE and other public health roles.
Nursing home HR managers told RTÉ's This Week that agencies working on behalf of the HSE were "aggressively" recruiting their nurses.
Nursing Homes Ireland has called for a six month pause on recruiting vital nursing home staff. In a statement to RTÉ News, the HSE said it was "not targeting nursing home staff" and did "not want to deplete any health services employees".
Olivia Geraghty, HR manager for the Sonas Nursing Home Group, told This Week that nursing homes had lost a lot of staff during the pandemic. "There was a lot of recruitment from the HSE.