Paul McGrath
Ceist:90 Mr. McGrath asked the Minister for Health whether he has plans to extend the Kilkenny Health Project to other parts of the country.
Written Answers. - Kilkenny Health Project.
The evaluation of the Kilkenny Health Project is currently underway in terms of its success in achieving its objectives and I expect the report on this evaluation to be submitted to me by the end of this year.
Given the position of the Kilkenny Health Project as the major community-based demonstration project in the country for the prevention of heart disease and the parallel development by my Department of a national strategy for health promotion, it was decided that there should be an effective linkage between the two initiatives. In that regard my Department are funding a research project which is currently being conducted by the Health Policy Research Centre at the ESRI which concerns the potential of a community-based lifestyle programme such as the Kilkenny Health Project model for positively influencing lifestyles on a national basis and the implications of organising any such programme on a national basis within the existing care delivery structures.