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Sharing research findings on embedding health across public policy with government officials in the Department of Health
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On 28th April 2026, the HIA-IM and TRANSLATE-HIA research team including Eibhlín Looney and Dr Monica O'Mullane from the School of Public Health, with Dr Joanna Purdy, All-Island Institute of Public Health delivered an in-person policy briefing to government officials in the Healthy Ireland team, Department of Health.
The HIA-IM and TRANSLATE-HIA projects are funded by the Health Research Board, led by Dr Monica O'Mullane as PI and co-hosted in UCC between ISS21 and the School of Public Health. The goal of HIA-IM is to create an implementation model for enhancing the practice of health impact assessment (HIA) in Ireland. The goal of TRANSLATE-HIA, as a knowledge translation project, is to boost impact and share findings from HIA-IM.
The goal of the in-person policy briefing was to share research findings from the HIA-IM project that are relevant for informing the next iteration of national public health policy, Healthy Ireland II, focussing on relevant findings that health impact assessment (HIA) can play in embedding Health in All policies across local and national policy development in Ireland. At the briefing, Dr Purdy, co-applicant on HIA-IM and TRANSLATE-HIA and Head of the Policy Team in the Institute, shared on the training programme in HIA developed by the All-Island Institute of Public Health.
As part of the briefing, reports from two HIAs undertaken as part of the HIA-IM project, on the Cork City Development Plan (2022-2028) and the 2024 Climate Action Plan, were shared. The reports and updated information on the projects are available on the project webpage, maintained and hosted by ISS21: https://www.ucc.ie/en/iss21/researchprojects/researchprojects/hia-im/
As part of the briefing, the team received questions from the govenrment officials, seeking clarity on HIA practice. Following the in-person briefing, Dr O'Mullane created a follow-up document including responses to the questions posed by the government officials. The purpose of the follow-up document was to ensure continued knowledge sharing with government officials with relevant and useful-for-policy information.
Our thanks to Dr Joanna Purdy and CEO of the All-Island Institute of Public Health, Suzanne Costello, for input on planning the briefing, and to the Healthy Ireland team, who met with us and engaged so openly with questions and discussion.
For more on this story contact:
Dr Monica O'Mullane. m.omullane@ucc.ie