Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I apologise that I was not present for many of the contributions. It is ironic that as I was attending the launch of the Global Hunger Index 2012, at which reference was made to children in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia being underweight and malnourished, the committee was deliberating on childhood obesity in Ireland.

Dr. Eldin made an important point about breast-feeding. He is correct that a baby-friendly environment will help to improve the uptake of breast-feeding. The single biggest step that could improve our breast-feeding uptake in this country would be to allow public health nurses to have the time to assist new parents with breast-feeding, especially in the first couple of days after they come home from hospital. The difficulty at the moment is that they do not have the time. As a result of that breast-feeding numbers will begin to fall rather than increase.

I will give an example of what is happening at the moment because of the cutbacks. One woman wanted to contact the breast-feeding specialist as she had a particular problem on a Tuesday. The message she got is that she could contact the breast-feeding specialist between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. on Thursday. By Thursday, she was bottle-feeding the baby. That is the challenge that currently exists. It is a simple thing. We have the professionals and the know-how and we have women who are willing to breast-feed but they need support and basic time would make a significant difference in that regard.

The biggest single challenge to the food industry currently is information. If one were to ask the committee members what is their target calorie intake, very few would know it. We must address the issue. People know what foods are healthy and what foods are not healthy but they do not know what should be their target calorie intake on a daily basis. Such information would assist people. Deputy Byrne’s point about price was correct but it is also a matter of information and convenience. We must make healthier choices the easy choice for people to make. A campaign was run two weeks ago by Bord Bia in which a cookbook was distributed in one of the national newspapers on wholesome foods. Many of those dishes were quick and easy to prepare. Much more focus must go into the area.

Portion size is a big challenge for the restaurant industry. One can go to a restaurant with healthy options on the menu but when one asks for the children’s menu one finds chicken nuggets and chips and sausages and chips. In some restaurants it is nearly impossible to get a half portion of the adult dishes. The only option is the unhealthy choice for children. The adults can have the healthy choice but not the children for some bizarre reason. More must be done to assist the restaurant industry in that regard. It is a matter of information for them as well. In fairness to the FSAI and the Nutrition and Health Foundation, they are doing much work in that area.

Labelling is a significant challenge for us because one sees food products advertised as 95% fat free, which means that they are 5% fat, which is a significant amount of fat. How it is being advertised, promoted and labelled is a big part of the problem. There is much merit in looking at an amalgamation of GDA and traffic light labelling to provide people with clear choices because if they had the choice people would make the decision if the product is cost competitive. When they do not have the basic information it is difficult to do that.