Cian O'Callaghan: “This extra work is overwhelming the system to such a point that samples are being outsourced to the private sector.”

Next week's budget needs to address what he described as the "repeated failure" of recent governments to help wider society and those most in need.

A previous stamp duty cut took place at the end of the Celtic Tiger era, at which point the country was promised it would not happen again without proper protections being put in place.

A quarter of all work carried out at the Galway University Hospital lab comes from the private hospital Bon Secours.

The hospital has a deal in place to do lab work for a private hospital.