Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We have good primary care centres across the country and GP practices, where there are television sets. My own GP surgery's waiting room shows health promotion videos which cover issues such as obesity and the like. This could provide an opportunity to put a campaign together on this issue. People attend GP practices for many reasons, including younger people who may have children in the future. Knowing my own girls and their friends, I find that many young people, young women in particular, are very conscious of their image and what they eat and they eat healthier. When buying foods they make efforts to get more vegetables and fruit. Much of this goes to the old-fashioned family lifestyle. I no longer see children playing on my street and we rarely see children playing the games we did when we were growing up. Many children now confine their entertainment to social media.

Professor Turner informed the committee on the process of following people from birth, to diagnosis to surgery. I hope he is a fan of the new National Children's Hospital going into St. James's where we will have a new, world class hospital, and a maternity hospital on the site in the future. I live near the Coombe Women and Infants University Hospital and it represents much of my constituency. I have raised this before with this committee and I raise again the possibility of somebody from the Coombe hospital coming to this committee to discuss the issue of babies being born to substance and alcohol abusing mothers. The committee has tried before and the clerk will try again to see if this will be possible.