Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety and thank him for his presentation. There is no hiding from the fact that obesity is a problem in Ireland. The joint committee recognises that much has been written in recent years about the long-term dangers of childhood obesity. We all know the underlying causes: a sedentary lifestyle, poor diet and lack of education. We have had many sectors represented before the committee, including food production, health, sport and fitness, as we want to be better informed and reflect on and identify the key issues involved. One of the elements of dealing with a complex and multi-faceted problem such as the obesity epidemic is a willing and co-ordinated response from the Government at both a political level and Departments.

The response should be imaginative, forward thinking and courageous. We need ministerial consensus with regard to the facts that whatever strategies are agreed must be implemented regardless of the short-term cost because the cost of the future failure would be both high and potentially unsustainable.

Some of the key issues are education and public awareness. We must create an environment where an effective education policy in relation to healthy nutrition is promoted and funded by the Government on an ongoing basis. An environment should be created so that young entrepreneurs aged between 17 and 23 years old who wish to enter the health and fitness sector are not penalised by commercial rates. Supermarkets should be encouraged and given an objective of ensuring that at least as much food and shelf space is given to whole food, unprocessed fresh meat, fruit and vegetables as given to crisps, pizzas, confectionary, desserts, chocolate and alcohol, etc. The excessive consumption of junk food not only adds high levels of fat, salt and sugar but also strips constituent ingredients of vitamins, iron and fibre.

This is an opportune time to use tax incentives in a positive way to promote healthy living. By offering tax breaks, commercial rate exemptions and VAT exemptions to businesses such as juice bars, gyms, tennis clubs, farm shops, cookery schools, yoga, aerobic and dance classes, hill walking, aqua sports, paintball and other sports activity, we can stimulate economic activity, create jobs and build a long-term positive social infrastructure. As a sports fanatic I believe we need to promote a healthy lifestyle and to encourage our children to get out and about from the start.

I am very grateful to my colleagues for nominating me as rapporteur of the child obesity study. These are only some of the key issues. I would also like to present the Commissioner with a copy of the report on childhood obesity. I would appreciate if he could comment on it.

The Commissioner mentioned budgets earlier. Does he have any plans to provide some funding to Ireland to combat the obesity problem in our country?