diff --git a/.requirements b/.requirements
index 32bc8c199ec9..416aa8736db7 100644
--- a/.requirements
+++ b/.requirements
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ LIBEXPAT=2.5.0
 
 LUA_KONG_NGINX_MODULE=4fbc3ddc7dcbc706ed286b95344f3cb6da17e637 # 0.8.0
 LUA_RESTY_LMDB=951926f20b674a0622236a0e331b359df1c02d9b # 1.3.0
-LUA_RESTY_EVENTS=8448a92cec36ac04ea522e78f6496ba03c9b1fd8 # 0.2.0
+LUA_RESTY_EVENTS=2dcd1d7a256c53103c0fdbe804f419174e0ea8ba # 0.3.0
 LUA_RESTY_WEBSOCKET=60eafc3d7153bceb16e6327074e0afc3d94b1316 # 0.4.0
 ATC_ROUTER=1abb9286947b70b4e302d8df953961c1280a0289 # 1.6.0
 
diff --git a/changelog/unreleased/kong/bump-lua-resty-events.yml b/changelog/unreleased/kong/bump-lua-resty-events.yml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..8481612691d5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog/unreleased/kong/bump-lua-resty-events.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+message: "Bumped lua-resty-events to 0.3.0"
+type: dependency
+scope: Core
diff --git a/changelog/unreleased/kong/bump-lua-resty-healthcheck.yml b/changelog/unreleased/kong/bump-lua-resty-healthcheck.yml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..61262f04dae5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog/unreleased/kong/bump-lua-resty-healthcheck.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+message: "Bumped lua-resty-healthcheck from 3.0.1 to 3.1.0, to reduce active healthcheck timer usage."
+type: dependency
+scope: Core
diff --git a/kong-3.4.3-0.rockspec b/kong-3.4.3-0.rockspec
index aa85c599a6a3..0caf78c36ddf 100644
--- a/kong-3.4.3-0.rockspec
+++ b/kong-3.4.3-0.rockspec
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ dependencies = {
   "binaryheap >= 0.4",
   "luaxxhash >= 1.0",
   "lua-protobuf == 0.5.0",
-  "lua-resty-healthcheck == 1.6.3",
+  "lua-resty-healthcheck == 3.1.0",
   "lua-messagepack == 0.5.2",
   "lua-resty-aws == 1.3.5",
   "lua-resty-openssl == 0.8.23",
diff --git a/kong/global.lua b/kong/global.lua
index cdceaa7f58ef..410e8d74f3ba 100644
--- a/kong/global.lua
+++ b/kong/global.lua
@@ -203,6 +203,9 @@ function _GLOBAL.init_worker_events()
     listening = listening,  -- unix socket for broker listening
     max_queue_len = 1024 * 50,  -- max queue len for events buffering
     max_payload_len = max_payload_len,  -- max payload size in bytes
+    enable_privileged_agent = configuration and configuration.dedicated_config_processing
+                                            and configuration.role == "data_plane"
+                                             or false
   }
 
   worker_events = require "resty.events.compat"