Medical expertise from both sides of the Border will be pooled by Ireland's new Institute of Public Health as part of a campaign to transform the island from one of the most unhealthy in Europe into one of the healthiest. The new Institute of Public in Ireland was inaugurated last night by the Minister for Health and Children, Mr Cowen, and the permanent secretary of Northern Ireland's Department of Health and Social Services, Mr Clive Gowdy. It is the first cross-Border body to be created since the start of the peace process and will come under the direction of the North-South Ministerial Council if the cross-Border structures in the Belfast Agreement become operational.
The all-Ireland organisation aims to shape public policy on both sides of the Border through disseminating information, promoting research and strengthening alliances in order to create greater impetus for change.
It aims to work with other bodies and agencies in both jurisdictions to improve health, identify training needs and strengthen partnerships for improving the health of society.
A key role for the institute will be to tackle health inequalities, by providing research into the links between poverty, disadvantage and long-term health.
The institute will forge links with international centres of excellence.
It will aim to strengthen the information base, skills and resources of the professional bodies and individuals working to improve public health.
"It will be a shared resource to help us develop a better understanding of the health and social circumstances of the people of this island, North and South," Mr Cowen said. "It will through this knowledge influence public policy development in the interests of public health and social equality."
Mr Gowdy said the £300,000 annual budget for the institute was being funded proportionately by the British and Irish governments. The new body has a staff of three. It will be at the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland (RCPI) in Dublin. The institute's director, Dr Jane Wilde, said the formation of the new body was a sign that the authorities in both parts of Ireland were taking public health seriously. "We do not have to be among the most unhealthy nations in west Europe," she said. "We should be among the best, and we can be."
There were major public health issues common to both Northern Ireland and the Republic, such as cardiovascular disease and cancer, she said.
The institute would work closely with the new food safety promotion cross-Border body in the event of it being established.
The chairman of the institute, Dr Brian Keogh, who is also the current RCPI president, said it was designed to make a difference. "As the institute develops its unique role working across professions, sectors, organisations, boundaries and jurisdictions, it will aim to develop a broad coalition for public health across the island of Ireland," he said.