Ahead of World Lung Day on Friday September 25th, the Irish Thoracic Society, the representative body for respiratory health professionals in Ireland, has today published Respiratory Health of the Nation 2026, the most comprehensive review on the state of respiratory health in Ireland since the last such report in 2018.

Drawing information and data from a wide range of authoritative sources, the report sets out the burden of disease, including incidence, mortality, hospitalisations, risk factors, preventive measures, and health service challenges, for the nation’s top lung conditions. Arising from the publication, the Society is once again calling for a dedicated respiratory steering group to be set up by the Department of Health to lead the development of a national respiratory strategy to urgently tackle the issues identified, with multi-annual funding to deliver it. The call comes as the World Health Assembly’s 2025 resolution on lung health urges Member States, Ireland among them, to develop integrated national policy on lung health through whole-of-government and whole-of-society approaches.

Disease Highlights
The report examines a wide range of lung diseases, outlining in detail data on incidence and mortality, through to economic burden and challenges accessing health services.

Lung cancer: this is Ireland’s biggest cancer killer, causing one in five of all cancer deaths. Between 2019 and 2023, 61% of lung cancers were diagnosed at stage 3 or 4, and only 20% at stage 1, where five-year survival is 59.5%, as against 5.6% at stage 4. Ireland does not have a national screening programme for the cancer that kills the most people.

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD): estimated to affect 380,000 people in Ireland, of whom 70% may be still undiagnosed.

Asthma: approximately 450,000 people are estimated to have doctor-diagnosed asthma. Provisional data record 94 asthma deaths in 2024, the highest since 2016.

Children’s lung health: nearly one in four paediatric in-patient admissions to an acute hospital bed in Ireland in 2024 were for a respiratory condition (23.7%). The 2024/2025 pilot RSV immunisation programme reached 83% uptake and cut hospitalisations by 78% among infants born during the programme period.

Cystic fibrosis (CF): Ireland has one of the highest reported rates of CF per capita in the world. Newborn screening identified cystic fibrosis in approximately one in every 2,000 births in 2024, and 1,454 people attended an Irish cystic fibrosis centre for care in the same year.

Need for Action
Commenting on the report, Prof. Eddie Moloney, Consultant Respiratory Physician and President of the Irish Thoracic Society, notes:
“As we mark World Lung Day this week, I think it’s fair to say that we all want the very best for current and future generations when it comes to respiratory health. Of course, to know where we want to get to, we need to know where we are now. That’s why this report is invaluable in setting out in detail the current status of a range of lung conditions in Ireland. In May 2025, the World Health Assembly adopted a resolution urging Member States, Ireland among them, to develop integrated national policy on lung health. We have had a National Cancer Strategy, yet despite respiratory disease being one of the top causes of mortality in our country, we have yet to see the development of a National Respiratory Strategy. The Irish Thoracic Society is once again calling on Government for three things: a National Respiratory Strategy; an expert Steering Group and an Implementation Plan with multi-annual funding to deliver on it.”

Huge Toll
The report sets out in comprehensive detail the cost of lung disease, as well as highlighting how factors such as smoking and air pollution are contributing to the challenges faced.

Human and economic cost: respiratory disease caused 6,832 deaths in 2024, almost one in five (19.4%) of all deaths in Ireland. Ireland’s respiratory death rate was 24.6% above the average of eight comparable European countries in 2022—the widest adverse gap for any major cause of death. The societal cost of respiratory disease in Ireland in 2023 was estimated at €15.1 billion a year.

Waiting for care: 29,169 adults were waiting for a first respiratory outpatient appointment in July 2026, 6,034 or 20% of them for more than a year—a higher proportion than the national average across all specialties. The respiratory consultant workforce would need to grow by a quarter to meet current need, and by 86% by 2038 to meet future need.

Air quality: air pollution is estimated to cause more than 1,700 premature deaths in Ireland each year, and Ireland is projected to fall short of new environmental air quality standards taking effect in 2030.

Smoking and vaping: 17% of adults were current smokers in 2025, broadly unchanged since 2019, and Ireland missed its Tobacco Free Ireland target of fewer than 5% of the adult population smoking by 2025. Vaping is increasing—8% of the population now use e-cigarettes, double the 2021 figure, rising to 18% among those aged 15-24.

Making Progress
Orla Veale, Chief Executive of the Irish Thoracic Society, adds:
“While some of the respiratory data in this report is stark, it is important to note that there is real progress that we can build on for the future. The pilot infant RSV immunisation programme achieved 83% uptake in 2024/2025 season and was followed by a 78% reduction in RSV hospitalisations among infants born during the programme. 405,131 people enrolled in the GP-led Chronic Disease Management Programme now receive their routine care in the community. There is a great deal of excellent work under way across the country, but it needs to come together under a National Respiratory Strategy, so that services can learn from one another, use resources more efficiently and deliver better outcomes for patients.”

Other Disease Insights
The report also highlights the impact of several other lung diseases for both people and the health services.

Interstitial lung disease (ILD): more than 11,000 people are estimated to be living with ILD. No national registry exists to understand the true extent and impact of ILD in Ireland.

Pulmonary vascular disease: there were estimated to be more than 25,000 cases of pulmonary embolism among adults between 2015 and 2022, with 149 deaths in 2023. Access to the National Pulmonary Hypertension Unit is subject to long waits, and there is no formal pathway from paediatric to adult services.

Tuberculosis: Ireland remains a low-incidence country for tuberculosis (TB), with 285 cases notified in 2025, a rate of 5.2 per 100,000 population. However, notifications have returned to pre-pandemic levels and are no longer falling.

To download a copy of Respiratory Health of the Nation 2026, visit www.irishthoracicsociety.com

ENDS