Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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518. To ask the Minister for Health the current funding in the health budget for obesity and chronic disease prevention. [39788/17]

Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael)
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Funding for obesity and chronic disease prevention is distributed across a number of departmental and agency programmes and initiatives that may both directly and indirectly relate to such prevention and public health.

The prospect of classifying expenditure along the lines requested by the deputy is remote in the absence of being able to precisely disaggregate spending wholly related to obesity and chronic disease prevention from overall HSE expenditure, which has operational responsibility for these areas. The Deputy may wish to note that the report A Healthy Weight for Ireland: Obesity Policy and Action Planestimated that the burden of adult obesity in financial terms is €1.13 billion per annum. In this context and as this question relates to a service matter, it has been referred to the HSE for attention and direct reply to the Deputy.