Richard Bruton
Question:167 Mr. Bruton asked the Taoiseach his estimate of the number of persons in dental practice and the value of private consumer spending on their services. [3512/05]
View answerTuesday, 8 February 2005
Questions (157, 158, 159, 160)
Richard Bruton
Question:168 Mr. Bruton asked the Taoiseach his estimate of the number of persons in medical practice and the value of private consumer spending on their services. [3513/05]
View answerRichard Bruton
Question:169 Mr. Bruton asked the Taoiseach his estimate of private consumer spending on third level education. [3514/05]
View answerRichard Bruton
Question:170 Mr. Bruton asked the Taoiseach his estimate of private consumer spending on private rented residential accommodation. [3515/05]
View answerWritten answers
I propose to take Questions Nos. 167 to 170, inclusive, together.
The CSO does not publish estimates of the individual expenditures listed above. However, three of the items listed above — viz. private rents, doctors' fees and dentists' fees — form part of the overall personal consumption expenditure estimates, which are published quarterly and annually as part of the national accounts. Consequently the estimates being provided here are of an approximate nature and should not be regarded as absolute definitive data. The latest full year for which data is available is 2003.
The estimated expenditure on private rented accomodation in 2003 is approximately €1.3 billion. The number of persons working as medical practitioners was 8,650 in the 2002 census of population. It is estimated that approximately 1,950 of those were in general practice.
The estimated private expenditure on doctors' services is approximately €290 million in 2003. This figure is estimated for the national accounts by projecting forward an estimate in the 1999/2000 household budget survey in respect of doctors' services. It is considered that the bulk of this is in respect of GP services but an element of it may be in respect of consultants' services. However the bulk of consultants' services are included with hospital services and not covered in this amount.
The number of persons working as dentists was 1,506 in the 2002 census. It is estimated that approximately 1,100 of these were in private practice. The estimated private expenditure on dentists' services in 2003 is €157 million.
Personal expenditure on third level education is not available from the national accounts as it is not distinguishable from imputed expenditure on university education which is financed by Government. However the household budget survey contains an estimate of personal expenditure on third level education. The latest survey for which results are available is the 1999-2000 survey and the estimated expenditure in that survey was €4.12 per week per household, i.e. averaged over all households irrespective of whether there were third level students there. A household budget survey is currently being conducted in respect of 2004-05 and results will be available within approximately 15 months of completion of the fieldwork.