Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Okay. It is important for the figures. There seems to be one set of figures contradicting the other and it is important to capture them. Obviously, what comes out is only as good as what goes in in the first place.

The Department of Health and the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform publicly disagree on how Ireland compares internationally in health expenditure. The Secretary General of the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform told the Oireachtas Committee on Budgetary Oversight earlier this year that Ireland ranks first in the EU for expenditure on healthcare as a proportion of our national income and as a proportion of the total Government spending despite our relatively young population. The Minister for Health, however, speaking in the Dáil after the budget, stated that of the 15 western European countries, Ireland comes 11th in the amount we invest in healthcare per person. The OECD cautions about the comparability of the figures and one of the reasons the OECD warns about that comparability is it is relying on countries to report their own data. What role does the CSO have in measuring and sharing our health expenditure data? How is it possible we can have such a disagreement about such facts at the highest level of Government?