Mr. Philip Moyles:

No. I will explain what typically happens. As I mentioned earlier, since we are now at a stage where we are getting a little publicity, people are contacting us. I was contacted by a person in Skerries last week because an application has gone in for a fast food outlet only 270 m from a school. A lady contacted me this morning to say that an application has gone in only 150 m from a school. They are looking for us to provide our experience and the knowledge we have gained through the process. That is great, but we believe we should not be in this situation.

It is very clear that if the planning guidelines were revised to ensure that no fast food outlet could be located within 400 m of a school or all of the county development plans were changed, there would be consistency in local planning. We do not have such consistency now, which is very frustrating. People do not want fast food outlets in certain locations because they might not be appropriate and they do not know what to do and they are trying to get interested parties together to fight it. That should not need to happen. The evidence is very clear that if one locates fast food outlets close to schools, one will see an increase in obesity. Children are then exposed to targeted aggressive marketing. We are in the middle of an obesity crisis and unless we start taking decisive clear action now, the problem will get worse.