Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 26 Jun 2003

Vol. 569 No. 5

Written Answers. - Anti-Poverty Strategy.

Seán Crowe

Question:

59 Mr. Crowe asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs her views on the statement by a person (details supplied) that an estimated 6,000 people die prematurely due to poverty; and her plans to tackle this matter. [18088/03]

Minister for Social and Family Affairs (Mary Coughlan)

The report of the Institute of Public Health, Inequalities in Mortality 1989-98, has shown that the all-cause mortality rate in the lowest occupational groups was 100%-200% per cent higher than the rate in the highest occupational group. The figure quoted recently by the person concerned of an estimated 6,000 people dying prematurely due to poverty and inequality is derived from that report and refers to deaths on the whole island of Ireland.

Health status and mortality rates are influenced by several factors. These include people's natural endowments, the physical and emotional nurturing they receive, the lifestyle they adopt, the degree to which the health services and the wider environment support and complement their attempts to prevent disease and to improve their health as well as the access they have to quality health and personal social services in times of need.

There is often a complex interaction between determinants that can have a more adverse effect on health. For example, unemployment where it leads to social isolation and involves poor living conditions, in turn influences an individual's psychological and coping skills. Together these factors may lead to poor health. Ireland now has historically low levels of unemployment – 4.6% compared with 10.3% in 1997 – and has experienced a real decrease in long-term unemployment from 5.6% in 1997 to 1.4% now. Consistent poverty has fallen from 15.1% of the population in 1994 to 6.2% in 2000. These developments, as well as leading to an overall improvement in living standards, should be expected to have a beneficial impact on health, and on mortality rates.

The main objective of the Government's revised national anti-poverty strategy is to further reduce, and ideally eliminate, poverty in Ireland and to build a socially inclusive society. Maintaining unemployment at a low level will be a key part of the strategy. The strategy also addresses the issue of health inequalities with a key objective being to reduce the gap in premature mortality between the highest and lowest socio-economic groups by at least 10% for circulatory diseases, cancers and for injuries and poisoning by 2007. A wide range of actions across the whole spectrum of health services and in other sectors is required to achieve this target.

The national health strategy, Quality and Fairness: A Health System for You, includes targets to reduce health inequalities associated with the key targets is a range of linked targets and policy measures in the areas of access to services, public policy, primary care, monitoring, impact assessment, information and research. The strategy also identifies a range of initiatives to eliminate barriers to disadvantaged groups, such as the continued implementation of the National Health Promotion Strategy 2000-06, the Traveller health strategy and the ongoing initiatives to improve the health and well being of homeless people.

In addition, there are commitments to targeting vulnerable and disadvantaged groups, including: continued investment in services for people with disabilities and older people; and initiatives to improve the health of travellers, homeless people, drug misusers, asylum seekers/refugees and prisoners.