A Fine Gael county councillor has criticised the HSE for its payments to hospital chaplains. 
Kieran Dennison, who represents the Mulhuddart Ward of Dublin West, questioned whether the State should be paying chaplains ahead of nursing staff, The Irish Times reports.
Mr Dennison, a member of the HSE Dublin North East Regional Health Forum, said “I am surprised that the taxpayer is paying for a chaplaincy service.”
The Irish Nurses’ and Midwives’ Organisation have also criticised the payments, saying that, while important, the current shortfalls in nursing staff meant that a priority staffing system should be introduced.
New figures show some €1.57 million was paid to the equivalent of 27 full-time chaplains in the northeast region last year.
In 2011, the HSE paid some €3.7 million to about 183 chaplains.
Last year, the Department of Education considered cancelling State funding for school chaplains as part of recent budget cuts, but found it was not legally able to do so.
The department also sought legal advice as to whether it could stop paying what amounts to €9m every year for the salaries of chaplains in community and comprehensive schools.
However, it was told that the payments were enshrined in the deed of trust that governs the schools and so had to continue.
The funding of salaries for school chaplains had been criticised by some.
Speaking at the annual conference of Community and Comprehensive Schools in Killarney, Assistant General Secretary at the Department Martin Hanevy said he could not guarantee that the payments would continue indefinitely.
Mr Hanevy said the current financial situation meant everything was up for scrutiny.
The deed of trust that governs Community and Comprehensive Schools is currently being revised.
He declined to rule out a suggestion that the issue of the State payment of school chaplains could be “unhooked” as part of this revision.