New data from the EU shows that Ireland continues to have one of the highest rates of excess deaths in 2023, with 17.8% excess mortality recorded in October 2023, the period for which the most recent data is pulled for the European Dashboard.
“In October 2023, excess mortality continued to vary across the EU. Seven EU Member States recorded no excess deaths. Among the twenty EU Member States that recorded excess deaths, the highest rates were in Finland (19.8 %), Ireland (17.8 %), Cyprus (17.4 %) and the Netherlands (15.1 %),” Eurostat reported.
The level of excess deaths recorded in Ireland during 2023 has been consistently amongst the worst across the EU member states, and well above the EU average, Eurostat figures show.
In August, excess deaths in Ireland reached 21.3%, before falling to 12.7% in September and then rising again to 17.8% in October.
Excess mortality in Ireland was recorded at 13.6% in June showing no significant fall from the previous month and a rise of more than a percentage point since April.
Previous reports showed that excess deaths in Ireland were recorded at 12.2% in April 2023, and 13.2% in May 2023, also well above the EU average.
Commentators and medical experts have posited several possible reasons for the level of excess deaths including the effect of social distancing on the immune system of the population, and the impact of prolonged lockdowns on access to healthcare.
Irish TDs have called for an investigation into the level of excess death that continue to be recorded for this country, with Independent TD, Mattie McGrath asking the Health Minister, Stephen Donnelly, last May if his Department would carry out an investigation into the trends and causes for the level of excess deaths.
Similarly, last July , Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Health why “the excess mortality rate in Ireland has been spiking so high in recent months.”
He asked for an investigation as to why “there were 25.4% more deaths in Ireland in December 2022 than the average for the same month from 2016 to 2019” and pointed out that “the excess mortality rate in Ireland has been higher than the EU average for the past 12 months apart from July 2022”.
In October he said his party had “been raising serious concerns over excess mortality for two years. There has been a prolonged period, month after month, where mortality figures have been far in excess of the normal in this State. We have been doing so through debates here, through parliamentary questions and in the media. It is deeply frustrating that the Government has not taken this issue seriously at all over the last two years.”
At that time Fianna Fáil TD, John McGuinness, who was a member of the Special Committee on Covid-19 Response, said he was “beginning to think that the number of deaths is unusual and, therefore, we should examine that and try to understand what is the cause of that.”
Speaking in the Dáil, the Kilkenny TD said that the number of young people dying in his county shocked him.
“Some people consider that there are a lot more deaths now than in comparison to previous years and normal life expectancy,” he said. “I accept that we have an increased ageing population and that would explain some of the numbers. What shocks me in my own county is the number of young people who are dying, the number of cancer cases being reported and the range of the types of cancer that people are suffering from, in some cases causing death. We should educate ourselves on what is happening and we should try to understand the types of cancer and where they come from,” he said.
Eurostat says that excess mortality refers to the number of deaths from all causes measured during a defined period, above what could be observed in the baseline period.
“The excess mortality indicator takes the number of people who died from any cause in a given period and compares it with a historical baseline from previous years in a period that was not affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. In this case, the baseline consists of the average number of deaths that occurred each month during the period 2016-2019. The higher the value, the higher the number of additional deaths compared with the baseline. The negative indicator shows that fewer deaths occurred in a particular month compared with the baseline period.”
A report released yesterday by the OECD asserted that that Ireland was one of nine OECD countries to avoid excess deaths during this period, reporting the fourth lowest rate globally (and surpassed only by New Zealand, Iceland and Norway).
While Minister Stephen Donnelly welcomed the findings as evidence of the “success of Ireland’s public health measures, and to the strong uptake of our COVID-19 vaccination programme”, other commentators said that Sweden, which did not implement such severe restrictions, had similar outcomes.
Ireland had no excess deaths during the pandemic. But guess what? Neither did Sweden, which never had full lockdown. This is a big deal and rather undermines claims that our particularly severe lockdowns saved the day. https://t.co/tcLkNDppnG
— David Quinn (@DavQuinn) January 2, 2024