3672. Deputy Roderic O'Gorman asked the Minister for Health if she intends to direct the HSE to begin the collection of data related to excess mortality rates due to extreme heat events; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [62169/26]

Since 2009, the HSE-Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) has participated in EuroMOMO, a European mortality monitoring activity, aiming to detect and measure excess deaths related to seasonal influenza, heatwaves and other public health threats. The EuroMOMO network is comprised of 29 partners in 27 countries or regions of countries across Europe.

The HSE-HPSC submits data weekly, based on daily data received from the General Register Office (GRO) on all deaths from all causes registered in Ireland. EuroMOMO publishes a weekly update of estimates of excess mortality, by age group, for all participating European countries including Ireland (see https://www.euromomo.eu/graphs-and-maps). This is the main indicator used to monitor trends in excess mortality in Ireland.

Excess mortality is a term used in epidemiology and public health that refers to the number of deaths from all causes during a period of time above and beyond what we would have normally expected to see. Excess deaths are typically defined as the difference between the observed number of deaths in a specific time-period and the expected number of deaths during the same time-period.

The latest data published by EuroMOMO relates to Week 35 2026. For Ireland, no excess mortality has been recorded since Week 5 2026 (see attached chart). It should be noted that for more recent periods, these data are provisional and continue to be revised each week as additional data becomes available. A country-specific adjustment function is applied to correct for the typical lag in registrations of deaths in Ireland. Nonetheless, estimates of excess mortality for the most recent weeks are reported with some uncertainty and should be interpreted with caution.

For all EuroMOMO partners combined, pooled EuroMOMO estimates of all-cause mortality showed excess mortality, particularly around Week 26 2026 (see attached chart), associated with extreme heat events occurring in Europe. The increase was mainly seen in age groups above 45 years, particularly affecting some countries. France, Belgium and Germany experienced high or very high excess mortality with UK (England), the Netherlands and Switzerland showing moderate excess mortality and several other countries including UK (Wales) experiencing low excess mortality.

The Department of Health works with the HSE-HPSC to closely monitor all trends in excess mortality, including during extreme heat events.