Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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409. To ask the Minister for Health the expenditure for the Healthy Ireland office for each year since its establishment; the cost of information campaigns; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17757/19]

Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Health and Wellbeing Programme in my Department is responsible for coordinating the implementation of Healthy Ireland which is the National Framework for Improved Health and Wellbeing 2013-2025. Healthy Ireland is based on evidence and experience from around the world which clearly shows that to create positive changes in health and wellbeing takes the involvement of the whole of Government and all of society working in unison. Since Healthy Ireland was launched in March 2013, my Department has developed several policies and strategies to support population health and wellbeing, including obesity, physical activity, sexual health, tobacco and alcohol.

It is not possible to identify in totality how much funding is currently spent on improving health and wellbeing across all Government Departments and agencies and in wider society.

Since the launch of Healthy Ireland, expenditure on its implementation from within the budget of the Department of Health has amounted to the following:

2013 - €89,315;

2014 - €586,470;

2015 - €607,706.83;

2016 - €1,156,405;

2017 - €5,996,837 (incl. the Healthy Ireland Fund)

2018 - €5,586,906 (incl. the Healthy Ireland Fund)

2019 - €622,514 (to date)

The Healthy Ireland Fund was established in 2017, with an initial annual allocation of €5 million, and aims to stimulate and support cross-sectoral action to support implementation of Healthy Ireland.

In addition to the expenditure noted above, other expenditure arising within the Department could also be described as "Healthy Ireland" depending on classification.

In relation to the cost of information campaigns, expenditure relating to the Healthy Ireland Communication and Citizen Engagement Campaign activity for 2018 amounted to €758,585. The campaign, which is a Government priority campaign, focusses on three key themes, Healthy Eating, Physical Activity and Mental Wellbeing, and aims to encourage people to make positive choices to improve their physical and mental health, while also providing support and information to help people make those healthier choices. Campaign activity in 2018 included digital and social media activity, sponsored media articles and radio  advertising, to increase awareness of Healthy Ireland, promote the gov.ie/healthyireland resource and link people with relevant information and supports provided by partner organisations. The campaign is continuing in 2019, and the latest phase was launched on the 8th of April.

In July 2018, the Government made a decision to establish a Healthy Ireland Office in the Department of Health to co-ordinate and oversee the delivery of the above actions and to support strengthened cross-Government collaboration on the implementation of Healthy Ireland. Work to progress the establishment of this Office is underway.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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410. To ask the Minister for Health the funding that has been made available to the Healthy Ireland fund each year since its establishment; if the funding for each of those years was spent in its entirety; the eligibility criteria for availing of the funding; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17758/19]

Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael)
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In July 2016, the Government approved the creation of a Healthy Ireland Fund and subsequently provided an initial allocation of €5 million in Budget 2017 to kick-start the establishment of the Fund.

The aim of the Healthy Ireland Fund is to stimulate and support innovative, cross-sectoral, evidence-based projects, programmes and initiatives that support the implementation of the key national policies in areas such as Obesity, Smoking, Alcohol, Physical Activity and Sexual Health.  Additionally, the Fund aims to support projects and programmes aimed at children and young people and their families and supporting communities and vulnerable groups who are at most risk of experiencing health inequalities. 

The Fund, which is primarily administered by Pobal on behalf of the Department, is currently arranged into two strands, strand 1 is for actions that are locally based and therefore targets funding at Local Community Development Committees (LCDC) and Children and Young Persons Services Committees (CYPSC).  Strand 2 is targeted at national level programmes through statutory organisations.  In round 1 and 2 of the Fund, the LCDC and CYPSC applicants were eligible to apply for the development of local area plans for the implementation of Healthy Ireland, membership of the Healthy Cities and Counties Network and the implementation of local priorities for health and wellbeing that were identified in existing Local Economic and Community Plans or Children and Children and Young People’s Plan.

The results of the first year of the Healthy Ireland have been very encouraging, especially in relation to the targeting of socially disadvantaged communities.  Of the 382 actions delivered under strand 1, a total of 2,456 organisations were reported to be involved in the implementation of local priority actions and aan estimated 770,000 people were reported to have benefitted.  These actions generally targeted health inequality, especially people living in areas of social disadvantage (71% of actions), people with disabilities (45%), people from new communities including refugees and asylum seekers (39%) and members of the Traveller community (36%). Similarly, the total number of people reported as benefitting from national actions under Strand 2 was 130,735. The number of organisations benefitting was reported as 1,785, and almost two thirds of actions (63%) reported a focus on people with disabilities and/or chronic illnesses (including mental health issues) and over half of actions (54%) were focused on people living in areas of social disadvantage.

In relation to the funding that has been made available by my Department annually since the inception of the Healthy Ireland Fund, and the outturn of these funds.  In 2017, €5 million was provided in the Budget and was fully expended, in 2018, a further €5 million was provided in the Budget and €4,995,000 was expended.  The fund received a €5 million allocation in Budget 2019.

Funding from the Department of Children and Youth Affairs and the Department of Rural and Community Development has also been allocated towards the Healthy Ireland Fund in 2017 and 2018, demonstrating the commitment to the Healthy Ireland Framework across Government.

An additional €1 million is being made available, from within the additional development funding allocation made to the Department in revised estimates 2019 to the Healthy Ireland Fund to boost community engagement on health and wellbeing locally in each local authority area.