Louis J. Belton
Question:42 Mr. Belton asked the Minister for Health the amount of money allocated for 1991 to the Health Promotion Unit within his Department.
Written Answers. - Health Promotion Unit Funding.
The Book of Estimates for 1991 includes a sum of £900,000 under Subhead K for dissemination of Information on Health and Health Services. Almost all of this money is used by the Health Promotion Unit to support the programmes. This figure takes no account of salaries and other overheads of the unit. Neither does it take account of health promotion work carried out by the individual health agencies.
The 1991 Subhead K allocation compares very favourably with the 1990 allocation of £750,000 — an increase of 20 per cent.
In addition, the Health Promotion Unit receives significant national lottery funding. This amounted to £300,000 in 1990. The 1991 national lottery funding for health promotion has yet to be determined. Some funding is also available for health promotion under the EC cancer programme. The 1991 allocation has not been decided upon to date.
I think the Deputy will agree that the Health Promotion Unit provide a very active and comprehensive range of health promotion programmes and the Government's commitment to this area is reflected in their decision to increase the 1991 allocation by 20 per cent.