evidence: - Healthy life expectancy (HLE) is the number of years someone can expect to live in good health: for NI, the current estimate for HLE is around 62 years while, for Ireland, it is 69.4 years - However, Northern Ireland uses a different definition of good health, meaning direct comparisons between the two figures are ill-advised - Analysis of other HLE estimates indicates the gap between NI and ROI is nowhere near ten years [...] "The average person in the Republic can expect to live a healthy life for almost a full decade longer than people in the North. The figure for the North is 61 years and the corresponding one for the Republic is 69.4 years." [...] When other estimates for healthy life expectancy are considered, it becomes clear that the gap between NI and RoI is nowhere near a decade.