Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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323. To ask the Minister for Health his plans to review a matter (details supplied) in regard to HSE spending; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7695/19]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), World Health Organisation and Eurostat have developed the System of Health Accounts which allows comparable estimates of health expenditure to be made between countries.

The System of Health Accountsprovides a standard framework for producing a set of comprehensive, consistent and internationally comparable estimates of health expenditure. Total health expenditure for the United Kingdom is reported under this system. Comparable expenditure by regions of the UK is not published. Therefore, it is not currently possible to undertake a direct comparison between health expenditure in Ireland and Scotland.

There are a variety of factors that need to be considered/adjusted for when comparing health systems between countries. These include:

- Variances in how System of Health Accounts expenditure data is compiled across countries;

- Population health, age structure and behavioural characteristics;

- The basis on which the health system is organised, provided, and financed; and,

- Wider issues such as the size and structure of the economy.

The Department is undertaking work to examine how the system of health accounts expenditure data can be better employed to undertake cross-country comparative analysis with OECD countries. This will be published when it has been finalised.