Department of Health

Information

The Government, the Minister for Health and the Department of Health are at the head of health service provision. The Department's main role is to support the Minister in creating and assessing policy for the health services. The Department also has a role in the future planning of health services, in consultation with the Health Service Executive (HSE), the voluntary sector, other government departments and other interested parties.

Each year, the Department of Health allocates funding to the Health Service Executive (HSE). Each HSE Area then make decisions about how they will distribute available resources to the agencies in their area. The Department takes account of a range of factors in determining what proportion of the funding should be allocated to each HSE Area. These factors include the cost of providing services in the previous year, pay costs, health service developments and funding for agreed specific items.

Organisation of the Department

The Minister for Health has overall constitutional and political responsibility for the Department.

There are two Ministers of State assigned to the Department. Their particular responsibilities are;

• Primary Care
• Disability, Equality, Mental Health and Older People (includes cross-departmental role with the Department of Justice and Equality)

The administrative (Civil Service) head of the Department is the Secretary General. He or she is the "accounting officer". In other words, he or she is responsible to the Dáil for ensuring that the money allocated to the Department is spent in the proper manner.

The Chief Medical Officer advises the Minister and the Department on medical issues.

The following are the main policy sections of the Department. There are a number of other sections dealing with administrative matters.