Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Go raibh maith agat. I welcome the delegation. This has been an exceptionally interesting morning for the committee. The delegation has made one of the most compelling cases that any of us have ever heard. I congratulate each of the five leaders. They have not spoken yet but they have spoken to us in other ways to each and every one of us.

Many of us here, myself included, could be where the participants are. We must build awareness of the appropriate weight for anyone of us. That is one of the lessons that came out of the message this morning, particularly for parents. The case of the mother and the young boy of 12 years is a little more obvious than many cases that would equally merit address. We must pay more than lip service to the problem. We must examine what we can do and not only in terms of encouragement which is important. We must explore the possibility of legislative changes but it will take more than this committee to do so. It will require an across-the-board holistic address comprising the Department of Health, Department of Education and Skills, safefood Ireland, who have an important role to play, the HSE plus the contribution made by the show. It is important to continue improving when the show wraps. It is a little like the pre conversation that we had before the group arrived, and Dr. Murphy made the point, the participants are in the business of change. None of us are more aware of that than I having looked at the faces of those who appeared on the current programme. When I look around at the committee members this morning there are only two of us who could possibly have signed up three years ago for the "Count Me In" programme. I was one of them and I had an opportunity to appear briefly on the group's previous television presentation. Change is very much a part of political life too.

One of the things that the committee could leave as its legacy is a little bit of leadership, like in political life, and what can be done to follow on the example given when the programme concludes. It would be terrible to lose good habits learned from the programme. Many of those people from political life who participated in the video presentation made by the group would acknowledge that the best practice that they had adopted over the period started to dissipate as time moved on. Old habits easily return. We need to encourage people to continue the good habits learned. A seven point plan was provided by Dr. Murphy, Dr. Orsmond and Mr. Henry and I thank them for their powerful presentation. We must recognise the common denominator between their plan and the safefood recommendations. There is much that we can do but it must be a collaborative job of work. I thank the group again. The five participants have been powerfully courageous and they have done us all a great service. I wish them good luck in the future.