John Crown (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I understand that. However, part of me thinks that if someone is responsible, not terribly well off and likes to take their kids out once a week for a meal at McDonalds, that is not so bad. The problem is with people who are doing it on a daily basis or three times a week and are not giving their kids a balanced diet. Why should we punish the person who has an occasional hamburger by making him or her pay more for something that is not causing a problem?

The main thing we need is educational and health intervention. The presentations contain pictures of people having their waists measured. We need to start doing this for schoolchildren. We need to take in children for nurse-led health screening where they will be weighed and measured and if they have a clearly defined obesity problem, the alarm should go off and there should be interventions. We need this and an educational job on our professions.