Healthy Ireland is a government-led initiative aimed at improving the health and wellbeing of everyone living in Ireland The Healthy Ireland, A Framework for Improved Health and Wellbeing 2013-2025 has 4 key goals:
Goal 1: Increase the proportion of people who are healthy at all stages of life
Goal 2: Reduce health inequalities
Goal 3: Protect the public from threats to health and wellbeing; and
Goal 4: Create an environment where every individual and sector of society can play their part in achieving a healthy Ireland.
Healthy Ireland takes a ‘whole of government’ and ‘whole of society’ approach. The Healthy Ireland Strategic Action Plan 2021-2025 provides a roadmap towards good health, access to services, healthy environments and the promotion of resilience in a manner that leaves no one behind.
In 2016, the Government approved the creation of a Healthy Ireland Fund (HIF) to support the implementation of health and wellbeing programmes and projects in a variety of settings. Pobal has administered 3 previous rounds of the Healthy Ireland Fund (HIF) on behalf of the Department of Health in the period 2017-2022.
The HIF Round 4 is rolled out locally via the 31 Local Authorities. New Healthy City/County Coordinator roles have been established in each local authority.
The design of HIF Round 4 has been informed by consultations with various Healthy Ireland stakeholders at both national and local level. Pobal has endeavoured to address the feedback from grantees to further improve the fund.
Based on this consultation process, and learnings from previous Rounds, HIF 2023-2025 represents a more evidenced-based outcomes led approach, with a longer 3-year timeframe and gives Local Authorities more discretion to make changes to both the work being undertaken and how the budget is being spent.
Source: https://www.pobal.ie/programmes/healthy-ireland-fund/