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

I join the Vice Chairman and my colleagues in welcoming our guests. I acknowledge the useful and important audiovisual presentation made recently in the AV room in which many of those present participated and which was organised by Deputy Mary Mitchell O'Connor. The testimony of the young women who presented their stories - the young girl from Carrickmacross in my constituency and the other young woman in her teens whose testimony has been mentioned again this morning - was powerful. The more people who hear their testimony the better.

The timing of this discussion is hugely important, not only in the context of the committee addressing the issue. Deputy Fitzpatrick, as rapporteur, is dealing with the preparation of the committee's report. I welcome this, but it is regrettable that we have not had an opportunity heretofore to hear these relevant voices. The timing is also hugely important in the context of the upcoming budget. As the date of the budget is being brought forward to October, this is a key and crucial time to impact on the Department of Health's proposals for health funding in 2014. This is not just about influencing our report but also about flagging to the Minister the importance of providing continued support. The support is not coming from the Department, but it is important that it take responsibility for funding the programme addressed by the Temple Street initiative which is the only programme addressing the issue of clinically obese children.

I am mindful of and more familiar with the community aspect of this issue. Community supported projects such as the CAWT supported Up4It project need to be rolled out universally. We will never get beyond the top of the iceberg unless we build in necessary supports. This comes down to the provision of resources. We need a bold and definite commitment on the part of lead voices in political life if we are to see a reversal of the trend outlined. We must recognise that if we do not provide the resources, we will build up a requirement for significant and ever more limited public funding in the future. Provision of resources to tackle this issue will result in a huge saving in the future.

I have a few questions about the statistics cited by Dr. Murphy. In terms of the committee's engagement with the Minister and its opportunity to impact on the real decision makers, we are just advocates, not a decision-making body.