Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I rise, first and foremost, to remember a great Galwegian, Irishman and sportsman, Mr. Christy O'Connor Jnr. It was a sad day for all of us when he departed this world. I also want to acknowledge my former colleagues in the Permanent Defence Forces and Reserve Defence Forces for the work they do. I wish to reiterate that they were out in the floods, not because they wanted to be but because they had to be. They were ordered to be there. They were out morning, noon and night and provided great relief to householders.

Senator Noone will be rather surprised to hear that I totally support her. As a rotund gentleman, some might argue that I would not have a lot to say about obesity but I paid and am paying the price for obesity. I have type 2 diabetes and am grossly overweight, although I am trying to do something about that. The No Fry Zone movement is calling for chip shops not to be located within 500 m of schools. There are schools in this country from which children are popping out every day of the week to buy bags of chips and bottles of cola. This is worthy of a discussion in this House and I support Senator Noone's call in that regard. Indeed, she has been embarrassing me here on the whole issue of obesity for some time now.