Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 16 April 2019
410. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Health the funding that has been made available to the Healthy Ireland fund each year since its establishment; if the funding for each of those years was spent in its entirety; the eligibility criteria for availing of the funding; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17758/19]
Amharc ar fhreagraIn July 2016, the Government approved the creation of a Healthy Ireland Fund and subsequently provided an initial allocation of €5 million in Budget 2017 to kick-start the establishment of the Fund.
The aim of the Healthy Ireland Fund is to stimulate and support innovative, cross-sectoral, evidence-based projects, programmes and initiatives that support the implementation of the key national policies in areas such as Obesity, Smoking, Alcohol, Physical Activity and Sexual Health. Additionally, the Fund aims to support projects and programmes aimed at children and young people and their families and supporting communities and vulnerable groups who are at most risk of experiencing health inequalities.
The Fund, which is primarily administered by Pobal on behalf of the Department, is currently arranged into two strands, strand 1 is for actions that are locally based and therefore targets funding at Local Community Development Committees (LCDC) and Children and Young Persons Services Committees (CYPSC). Strand 2 is targeted at national level programmes through statutory organisations. In round 1 and 2 of the Fund, the LCDC and CYPSC applicants were eligible to apply for the development of local area plans for the implementation of Healthy Ireland, membership of the Healthy Cities and Counties Network and the implementation of local priorities for health and wellbeing that were identified in existing Local Economic and Community Plans or Children and Children and Young People’s Plan.
The results of the first year of the Healthy Ireland have been very encouraging, especially in relation to the targeting of socially disadvantaged communities. Of the 382 actions delivered under strand 1, a total of 2,456 organisations were reported to be involved in the implementation of local priority actions and aan estimated 770,000 people were reported to have benefitted. These actions generally targeted health inequality, especially people living in areas of social disadvantage (71% of actions), people with disabilities (45%), people from new communities including refugees and asylum seekers (39%) and members of the Traveller community (36%). Similarly, the total number of people reported as benefitting from national actions under Strand 2 was 130,735. The number of organisations benefitting was reported as 1,785, and almost two thirds of actions (63%) reported a focus on people with disabilities and/or chronic illnesses (including mental health issues) and over half of actions (54%) were focused on people living in areas of social disadvantage.
In relation to the funding that has been made available by my Department annually since the inception of the Healthy Ireland Fund, and the outturn of these funds. In 2017, €5 million was provided in the Budget and was fully expended, in 2018, a further €5 million was provided in the Budget and €4,995,000 was expended. The fund received a €5 million allocation in Budget 2019.
Funding from the Department of Children and Youth Affairs and the Department of Rural and Community Development has also been allocated towards the Healthy Ireland Fund in 2017 and 2018, demonstrating the commitment to the Healthy Ireland Framework across Government.
An additional €1 million is being made available, from within the additional development funding allocation made to the Department in revised estimates 2019 to the Healthy Ireland Fund to boost community engagement on health and wellbeing locally in each local authority area.
