- The charity provided health checks throughout the day, with some 100 members and staff availing of a cardiovascular risk assessment.
- The event drove awareness of cardiovascular disease – which is Ireland’s leading cause of death and disability.
- Croí also highlighted the need for a national cardiovascular plan, with the previous plan having expired in 2019.
November 2025 Croí, the Heart and Stroke Charity, held a Heart Health Check and Awareness Event in Leinster House to highlight the urgent need for a new national cardiovascular plan to tackle cardiovascular disease (CVD), which is Ireland’s leading cause of death and disability.
The event, hosted by Minister Noel Grealish offered simple health checks for things like blood pressure, pulse, and cholesterol, and also included a test for Lp(a) – a genetic factor that can increase the risk of heart disease. One in five people worldwide have high Lp(a) levels. Knowing your level can help you take steps to protect your heart health, or that of a loved one. New European guidelines recommend that every adult should have this test at least once in their lifetime. However, it’s not yet available to the public in Ireland – something Croí hopes will change. Cholesterol checks were conducted in collaboration with Randox.
In addition to testing, the event offered tailored advice on cardiovascular risk reduction, including stroke prevention, to more than 100 members of the Oireachtas and staff. The initiative was supported by Novartis.
Cardiovascular disease currently claims more than 9,000 lives every year in Ireland, accounting for one in every three deaths. Its impact extends across the health service and the wider economy: one in two families will be affected by heart disease or stroke; while CVD is responsible for 40% of hospital admissions and 75% of hospital bed days; and costs the State an estimated at €3.4 billion annually.
Despite these stark figures, Ireland has had no national cardiovascular strategy since 2019. With an ageing population and rising prevalence of risk factors such as hypertension, obesity, diabetes and high cholesterol, Croí is warning that the burden of CVD will continue to escalate unless prevention and early detection become national policy priorities.
Meeting with Oireachtas members throughout the day, Croí called for the urgent implementation of three priority policy actions:
- Publish a new National Cardiovascular Health Plan with measurable targets to reduce deaths and hospitalisations, expand prevention and rehabilitation programmes, and strengthen early detection and treatment services.
- Implement the National Review of Adult Specialist Cardiac Services (2023), which offers a clear pathway for delivering safe, equitable and high-quality cardiac care nationwide.
- Provide dedicated funding to ensure full delivery of the National Stroke Strategy. This would improve patient outcomes, reduce long-term disability and lower overall healthcare costs.
Croí’s Medical Director, Professor Jim Crowley, said, “Today’s heart health event in Leinster House, and the high volume of demand, showed just how seriously members of the Oireachtas take their own heart health. We were delighted to provide checks to some 100 members and staff over the course of the day. The level of engagement we saw shows both the scale of concern and the appetite for early detection when it comes to cardiovascular health and stroke prevention. It also underlines, in a very real way, how vital accessible prevention services are.”
“Cardiovascular disease remains Ireland’s biggest killer, but a more proactive, preventive model of healthcare can save lives. What we need now is a coordinated national plan to ensure every community in Ireland can access the same level of support. Hopefully today will show our politicians just how easy it is to prevent cardiovascular incidents – all we need is the supporting policies to put these checks in place, and ensure they are accessible across all of Ireland,” Professor Crowley added.