Spending on agency staff at the Louth County Hospital in Dundalk has fallen from €2.2m in 2007 to €1.3m last year, according to new figures released by the HSE.
Despite this cutback, the cost of employing agency staff in the Louth-Meath Hospital Group has more than doubled from €10.3m in 2007 to more than €23m in 2013.
Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda saw the biggest increase with costs rising from just over €5m seven years ago to €15.6 million last year.
Just over €6m was spent at Our Lady’s in Navan in 2013 as well, more than double the amount spent in 2007.
Sinn Féin, who received the figures via a parliamentary question in the Dáil, have described the overall increases as a massive waste of public money.