Dr. Cliodhna Foley-Nolan:

We have attempted by means of a campaign during which we used the term "superfoods" which has been used to describe items such as exotic beans to say we are talking about fruits, vegetables, lean meat, wholegrain and so on. These are the superfoods, as the Chairman said. However, it is not easy to counteract the marketing budgets of these industries. There are parallels with the tobacco industry and so on. They are also plying us with statements about products that they claim are healthy because they do not contain as much as X, although they contain more of Y and are convenient. For example, what could be more convenient: a chocolate, an apple or a potato?

Deputy Billy Kelleher referred to cooking skills and so on. The issue also arises from what children are seeing in the home or supermarket. If one walks into a supermarket, one almost needs an extra coat because there are so many rows of frozen readymade meals and other products. These items are being plied to us and our job is to counteract this as much as possible.

We spoke about the next phases. The Minister for Health has brought together in his Department a special action group on obesity, SAGO, of which safefood is a member. We always worked closely with the other organisations, but there is greater cohesion, which is welcome. I ask the committee not to get hung up on one simple answer. What we are talking about is a sustained approach on which we have been working on the past few years and on which SAGO is now working.

There is room for a Government statement on the matter. Several members referred to a sugar, sweet and beverage tax. It would not solve the world's problem, but there is evidence to show that it would have an impact. It would also be a statement from the Government to the population and industry that we need to get our act together and that this is a serious matter.