John Bruton (Meath, Fine Gael)
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Question 130: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the percentage of the health budget here spent on prevention programmes; and the way in which this compares with the OECD average. [18181/04]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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In 2002, the latest year for which relatively comparable data is available on the OECD database, public expenditure on prevention and public health as a percentage of public expenditure on health in Ireland was 3.13%. The OECD average for the same year was 3.48% for the 15 countries, including Ireland, of the 30 OECD members which made returns for this area.

John Bruton (Meath, Fine Gael)
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Question 131: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the ratio of growth in health expenditure to growth in the GDP here over the past seven years; and the way in which this compares with the OECD average ratio. [18182/04]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The following tables show the latest information available from the OECD regarding Ireland's public health expenditure as a percentage of GDP and relative to the OECD average. The information for 2002, the latest available, is based on preliminary data recently released by the OECD which also includes a revision for Ireland's reported health expenditure for 2001.

The Vote for the Department of Health and Children contains funds to cover a broad range of personal and social services, including social care, as well as what is recognised by OECD as coming within the standard boundaries of health care. The figures published by the OECD take account of adjustments necessary to bring Ireland's health expenditure better into line with the boundaries for health systems set out in the OECD system of health accounts.

Table 1 shows that over the period 1997-2002, Ireland's public health expenditure grew at a rate faster than that of GDP over the same period.

The latest comparable OECD data relates to 2002 and includes 24 out of 29 countries, including Ireland. The table below, showing the increase in health expenditure as a percentage of GDP from 1997-2002, is based on data from those 24 countries.

This table shows that Irish health spending as a percentage of GDP has increased at a higher rate than the OECD average. This reflects the Government's sustained investment in the public health services over the period.

The Deputy should be aware that the approach of comparing health expenditure based on percentage of national income has some limitations. Increases in GDP will reflect growth on the basis of the economy expanding over a period of time. This may mean that although funding provided for a particular sector such as the health service may increase significantly in real terms, the percentage committed may fall due to overall GDP growth, this being particularly evident in a fast expanding economy such as has been evident in Ireland in recent years.