Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)

Apologies. Deputy Connolly raised the issue of local area disadvantage. I accept his point that health figures are not as good, by definition, in areas of disadvantage. It is extremely important, both on the education and health fronts. In education, we have a successful DEIS programme. We are now looking at DEIS plus. The Minister was at the Cabinet today signalling a move to DEIS plus for areas of profound socioeconomic disadvantage, with different types of supports being available to the small number of schools that would gain access to such a DEIS plus programme. Health probably needs to do better, or run in parallel with the pace that education has moved over the years, in respect of specific health initiatives in areas of economic disadvantage. In 2002 I established the Niche project on the northside of Cork, in Knocknaheeny, and it had a profound impact. It dealt with issues such as lifestyle, access to gyms and was pioneered by the local health board at the time. We need more of that from the health side. They are getting better at it and there is more of it happening but, compared with what is happening in education, we could be doing better in health.

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