Vol. 577 No. 3
454 Mr. O'Dowd asked the Minister for Health and Children his views on the letter from a person (details supplied) to his Department on 25 March 2003 concerning baseline health data and the concerns expressed by the public regarding human health in the vicinity of waste facilities, including landfill sites and incinerators. [31124/03]
The issues raised in the correspondence referred to by the Deputy on health data arise from a report published in February this year by the Health Research Board.
The board published a literature review of the health and environmental effects of landfilling and incineration of waste. The report was commissioned by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. The report points to information gaps in respect of monitoring of both the condition of the environment and the health of population around waste disposal sites. These issues are subject to ongoing discussions between officials of my Department and officials of the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. In addition, the national health strategy, Quality and Fairness: A Health System for You, published in 2001 recognises the need to address issues in this area. Under the strategy the national health information strategy, NHIS, will be published and implemented. This strategy is being finalised.
One of the principal motivations behind the development of the NHIS has been the recognition of significant gaps and deficiencies in health information. The NHIS will therefore make recommendations for addressing these issues through a range of initiatives and structural changes. A key element of the latter will be the establishment of the health information and quality authority, HIQA, which is expected to have a broad remit in information system development, standard setting, and dissemination.
