Nature of Occupancy refers to the tenure status of the dwelling, indicating whether it is owned or rented. See Background Notes for further information.
Median distance to health services varied across housing tenure groups. Individuals who ‘Occupied free of rent’ generally had the highest median distances to services, while those who ‘Rented from private landlord’ had the shortest median distances. For example, the median distance to a HSE Emergency Department was 20.8 km among individuals who ‘Occupied free of rent’ and 6.6 km among those who ‘Rented from private landlord’. Wider variation in travel distances was observed among individuals who 'Occupied free of rent' compared with all other tenure groups. For instance, one in four individuals who 'Occupied free of rent' lived within 4.7 km of their nearest HSE General Hospital, while one in four lived more than 30.8 km away.
Maternity-related services had the largest median distances across all tenure groups. Median distances to a HSE Maternity Department ranged from 10.7 km for those who 'Rented from private landlord' to 23.9 km for those who 'Occupied free of rent', while median distances to a HSE Emergency Maternity Department ranged from 11.6 km to 27.8 km between the same two tenure groups. Individuals who 'Rented from a local authority' and those who 'Rented from a voluntary body' had similarly short median distances to a HSE Maternity Department, at 12.1 km for each group.
In several Counties - including Limerick, Cork, Galway and Dublin - individuals who ‘Rented from private landlord’ consistently had shorter median distances to regional health services than those who were ‘Owner occupied with loan or mortgage’, ‘Owner occupied without loan or mortgage’ or those who ‘Occupied free of rent’. However, this pattern was not uniform across all counties. In Longford, median distances to a HSE General Hospital were very similar across tenure groups, excluding those where Nature of Occupancy is ‘Not stated’ (30.6 km - 31.3 km). In Monaghan, individuals who ‘Rented from private landlord’ (36.0 km) had a higher median distance to a HSE General Hospital than several other groups, differing from the State pattern. In Kerry, individuals who ‘Rented from a voluntary body’ (27.8 km) had longer median distances to a HSE General Hospital than those who ‘Rented from private landlord’ (26.2 km), although the differences were relatively small.
A general pattern emerged across Nature of Occupancy groups for local health services, with median distances broadly similar among individuals who were 'Owner occupied with loan or mortgage', 'Owner occupied without loan or mortgage' and 'Occupied free of rent'. Individuals who 'Rented from a local authority', 'Rented from a voluntary body' or 'Rented from private landlord' had shorter median distances to local health services than all other occupancy groups. The most pronounced differences between groups were in Wicklow, where individuals who 'Occupied free of rent' had substantially higher median distances to Pharmacies, GPs and HSE Primary Care Centres relative to all other occupancy groups. For example, the median distance to a Pharmacy for individuals in Wicklow who 'Occupied free of rent' was 2.4 km, compared with less than 1.0 km for those who 'Rented from a local authority' or 'Rented from private landlord'.
Within Local Electoral Areas (LEAs), Roscommon had the largest difference in median distance to a HSE Emergency Department or Injury Unit between tenure groups. Individuals who were ‘Owner occupied without a loan or mortgage’ had a median distance of 18.3 km, compared with 3.2 km for those who ‘Rented from private landlord’. Where differences existed across LEAs, they generally followed this direction. A gap of more than 10.0 km between these tenure groups was also observed in Ballinasloe in Galway, Baltinglass in Wicklow, Cavan‑Belturbet in Cavan, Conamara South in Galway and Nenagh in Tipperary.
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