Minister for public health ‘needed to address inequality’

A minister for public health should be appointed in light of startling new figures showing the hidden impact of Ireland’s unequal society on the health of the poor.

New Irish Medical Organisation president, Dr Paul McKeown, made the call after a litany of life-shortening problems affecting the poorest people in society were revealed by expert speakers.

They included Owen Metcalfe, director of the Institute of Public Health in Ireland, who said statistics repeatedly show our poorest men will die four years earlier than our richest, and poor women two years earlier than their wealthier counterparts.