HSE staff nurse pay scale and nurse salary in Ireland

A staff nurse in the HSE is paid €38,166 a year on the first point of the scale and €54,956 on the twelfth, with a long service increment to €56,592 after that. These are the HSE consolidated salary scales in effect from 1 June 2026, the version the HSE lists as current on 23 October 2026. They are basic annual salary only, before allowances, overtime and tax.

The staff nurse scale, point by point

Grade code 2135, Staff Nurse. The same figures apply to Staff Nurse General (Community), Registered Midwife, Registered Intellectual Disability Nurse and Registered Sick Children’s Nurse. Increments are paid once a year. The HSE notes that the first long service increment is paid after 3 years on the maximum. The weekly column follows the HSE’s own rule, annual rate divided by 52.18; the monthly column is the annual rate over 12. Both are gross, before tax, PRSI, USC and pension.

For the trend: the same row of the PDF prints the two earlier rates. Point 1 was €37,288 from 1 September 2025 and €37,788 from 1 February 2026, so the June 2026 figure is €878 higher than nine months earlier.

Other nursing grades on the same document

Enhanced Nurse is a separate contract with its own scale: it starts between staff nurse points 4 and 5 and tops out higher. CNM1, CNM2 and CNM3 are the ward management grades. Mental Health, Children’s, Community and Intellectual Disability versions of the Enhanced Nurse and CNM grades are on the same pages at the same rates, except where the table above says otherwise.

The gap between the first two rows and the staff nurse scale is the money side of NMBI registration: €33,370 while you wait, and €38,166 or more once your name is on the Register. For most nurses trained outside the EU, registration comes after the RCSI aptitude test, as the registration route guide explains.

What changes these figures

The HSE scales move with national pay agreements. The 1 June 2026 rates include a 1% increase to basic salaries under the Public Service Agreement 2024-2026, and the PDF says it must be read with Department of Health Circular 2/2026. The current file is version 4: it also carries the 1 September 2025 local bargaining adjustments for nursing grades (Department of Health Circulars 9, 10 and 11 of 2026). The HSE publishes a new consolidated PDF each time, so check the pay scales page for a newer one; on 23 October 2026 the June 2026 file was still the only one listed under current scales. Which point you start on is a question for the HR department of the employer; the HSE says to ask your own HR manager about your starting pay.

Allowances sit on top of the scale for some posts. The same PDF lists, for example, a specialist qualification allowance for nurses with a relevant qualification working in areas such as A&E, theatre and intensive care, and a location allowance for certain duties and settings. Whether one applies depends on the post, so ask when you get the offer.

Private hospitals and nursing homes set their own pay. If they hire you on a Critical Skills Employment Permit, the permit rules set a floor of €40,904 a year, while public sector jobs under a pay agreement are assessed on the agreed scale. The Critical Skills permit guide has the detail.

Get to point 1

The first staff nurse salary starts when the NMBI registers you, and for most overseas nurses that waits on the aptitude test. Our practice bank covers the RCSI reading list with the Irish source under every answer, plus a timed 150-question mock and the OSCE forms. The pass is €59. Try the free questions first.

Sources: HSE Pay scales and the consolidated salary scales, 1 June 2026 (nursing and midwifery grades, pages 9 to 17); Department of Enterprise Critical Skills Employment Permit. Checked 23 October 2026.