Ireland's per capita spending on health has not yet exceeded the EU average, according to the OECD.
Revised figures from the OECD contradict earlier assessments by the Government and economic analysts, including the ESRI, which recently described Ireland's public health spending as on track to be the third highest in the EU.
The main reason for this divergence is that the OECD now excludes nearly a quarter of Irish public health spending from international comparisons on the grounds it is social spending which other states do not fund from their healthcare budgets.
When spending on what is conventionally understood as healthcare is compared, and spending on areas like care for older people, the disabled and children at risk is excluded, Ireland has yet to exceed the EU average and spends less per capita than the majority of EU states.
The Government had estimated in its 2001 health strategy that Irish public health spending per capita exceeded the EU average for the first time that year. However, the latest figures from the OECD suggest that Irish public health spending per capita was 89 per cent of the EU average in 2001.
Coming from this position, Ireland is extremely unlikely to have exceeded EU average per capita spending either this year or last.
The OECD revision highlights that recent large increases have been necessary to raise Irish public health spending from a very low base - just 69 per cent of the EU average as recently as 1996 and averaging 71 per cent of the EU average over the last 20 years.
The OECD now ranks Ireland's per capita public health spending in 2001 as 11th of the 15 EU member-states. In that year the value of Irish public health spending was equivalent to $1,470 per capita compared to an EU average of $1,657.
Germany's public health spending in that year was $2,104 per capita. In the US public health spending per capita was $2,168, while US private health spending was $2,719 per capita compared to Ireland's $465.
There are no internationally comparable figures available for last year. Estimates derived from applying the OECD's methodology to 2002 and 2003 suggest that Irish per capita public spending is unlikely to have risen above 95 per cent of the EU average last year and may even have fallen to a lower level this year following a much lower increase in core health spending.