Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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138. To ask the Minister for Health his plans to provide mortality and morbidity information below county level here particularly in the context of the proposed health information and patient safety Bill; if his attention has been drawn to the fact that this breakdown of mortality and morbidity information below county levels is essential as a baseline for assessment of potential health risks to the public from environmental and other sources and is a requirement of EU member states under the Aarhus Convention; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43358/17]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The Department of Health has created the Public Health Information System (PHIS) to provide detailed information on mortality and morbidity at county level. The system is populated, inter alia, with data from several sources including the Hospital In-Patient Enquiry (HIPE) system for hospital discharge data, Central Statistics Office for mortality and fertility data, the National Perinatal Reporting System for data on perinatal events and the National Cancer Registry of Ireland for cancer incidence. Most of these data sources can provide data at a disease-specific level which makes it a key tool for monitoring of trends in public health.

The National Healthcare Quality Reporting System is an annual report published by the Department of Health which includes information on 27 public health and patient safety indicators, including figures on morbidity and mortality. The indicators are presented at at varying levels of detail including some at hospital level and some at county level.

The recent Census also provides data on population health and disability at local level. It is possible to analyse these data at very low levels of granularity, down to small area level which is the lowest analytical level available.

The Environmental Protection Agency also provides an Air Quality Index for Health which informs on air quality at local level.