Tens of thousands of euro is spent each year by the health service to bury people who die in Irish hospitals but have no family to make arrangements, according to new figures.
The Health Service Executive (HSE) has spent more than €220,000 in the last two years alone.
It sometimes paid costs for people who were in long-stay care before being transferred to an acute hospital in their last days of their lives.
There were occasions, it said, when there were no records of living family members, and nobody came forward after the person died.
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In 2024, about €116,000 was spent by the HSE on burial expenses for those without means.
The majority of the spending – some €82,000 – was incurred in the HSE South and South East region.
A further €25,000 was spent in the Midlands Financial Region and around €9,000 was paid by the HSE in the east of the country.
For 2023, expenditure totalled €106,000 with around two-thirds of the spending in the HSE South and South East region.
The HSE said that while burial expenses were normally met by relatives, there were times when its services, including acute hospitals, paid for deceased patients “with no known relatives”.
An information note from the health service said: “While a person may pass away in an acute hospital, [they] may have been in a long-stay or psychiatric unit for years, before being transferred to an acute setting upon becoming acutely ill.
“There may be no record of living family members who would have made themselves known to that unit.”
The HSE said there were also cases where the family of homeless individuals who passed away in acute hospitals could not be traced.
They said in such circumstances, they would liaise with community services to try to find relatives.
“Where the burial expenses of a deceased person are to be met by the HSE, it is usually the coroner or the community welfare officer who arranges same,” it said.
The HSE figures only cover its services and not voluntary hospitals which may have their own arrangements in place.
