Mr. Shane Dempsey:

The larger companies will sign up. We need them to do that and when they do so, we need to reward them so that it incentivises the other companies to become involved. The big companies who sign up to voluntary codes are often the ones that are targeted the most by different stakeholders and groups. It means that the people who have not made the effort to be part of the voluntary code ask why they should participate in it. We need to encourage all companies to get involved and that can be done by means of a whole-society response.

My colleague has spoken about the cheese argument. This is always being raised because it is an example of the BAI's approach, which was to take a nutrient profile model from the English situation and to transpose it onto the Irish situation. There are other products, apart from cheese, that will also be restricted in their advertising and which, in our view, should not be restricted. However, the cheese advertising is being raised because this is a very political issue in Ireland. As I said earlier, one in three children have calcium deficiency. If we had used the Irish Universities Nutrition Alliance, IUNA, data, we would have identified that issue and we would have been able to use Irish data to change the system to suit the Irish population.

On the issue of soft drinks, Senator Crown put it very well at last week's meeting that no product is bad in moderation and no product is safe in excess. Despite the comments made about soft drinks, IUNA shows they only contribute approximately 2% of energy for Irish children and 60% of the population does not consume soft drinks. We are considering the introduction of a national tax across the whole population when 60% of the people do not even consume soft drinks. I ask what impact this measure will have on obesity in the medium or long term. I use this example to highlight a point that we need to target our interventions. The Live Well project has been the subject of much discussion between the industry and other groups. We think that project will be a very tangible step forward in how industry and government can work together on this issue. It would not be the place of the industry to decide on the programme for the children because by doing so, the programme would be discredited. We want to work with the relevant agencies on deciding what is the correct intervention.

In reply to Professor Flynn's statement, the food pyramid and physical activity plan are in place and the healthy eating guidelines will be in place soon. Those documents are the basis for a societal response but, as Deputy Fitzpatrick said, they might not get out there. We need to work on the implementation plan as much as possible and the industry is prepared to support it so that it is accepted by consumers and citizens.