Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-07-15
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Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

I thank Deputy Stanley for raising this issue. He mentioned that Ireland is well over 100 years in existence as an independent State. There is a great book by Mark Henry, In Fact: An Optimist’s Guide to Ireland at 100 . It contains a great chapter on health that I invite Deputy Stanley to read. If he looks at what people were dying of in 1922 and 1923 and the average lifespan at that time and the position today, he will see that there is no comparison. There has been an incredible improvement in the average lifespan. Ultimately, that has to be the measurement of any health service and of a broader societal approach to health and well-being. With a life expectancy of 83 years in 2024, Ireland ranked sixth highest among EU member states. I was Minister for health from 2000 to 2004. We were nowhere near this level of life expectancy at that time. The reason was that we did not have any national strategies on the key killer diseases, namely cancer and cardiovascular disease. We developed national strategies from the late 1990s onwards for cancer and cardiovascular disease. These had very dramatic beneficial impacts.
Those strategies were followed by substantial investment as well. Our mortality rate fell by 16.1% over the decade from 2015 to 2024. Our mortality rate for all circulatory system diseases fell by 28%, with the rate for heart disease and stroke falling by 34% and 42%, respectively. The mortality rate for all cancers dropped by 13.7%, with cancer of the trachea, bronchus and lung and breast cancer dropping by 19.3% and 11.7%, respectively. The mortality rate for respiratory diseases is down by 23%. I just need to make those general points. We are making progress. The investment has been huge. We have invested exponentially now in our health services.
In respect of GP and primary care, we have now had the biggest expansion of access to free GP care in the history of the State. If we take medical cards and GP visit cards, about 2.3 million people are eligible for free GP care, including those with medical cards and GP visit cards. We have reduced the threshold for the drug payment scheme to €80 per month. We did this progressively over the past number of years. We have funded diagnostic scans now for patients. We have introduced free contraception for women up to the age of 35. We are publicly funding assisted human reproduction, including IVF, and free HRT.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-07-15/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:08+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-15