Ms Louise Reynolds:

It is necessary to see something to know it is the right thing sometimes. Like everything else, mentors are needed. A young girl having a baby may never have seen anyone breastfeed, including her sisters, not her mum nor her cousins. It would not be at the front of her mind and that is because it is not the norm yet. Breastfeeding is only being initiated by just over half of women. We need to work on that because people need to see something to think of something. Education plays a huge role. Two thirds of people in Ireland are overweight or obese. A person who has a normal weight is in the minority. Active choices have to be made to not gain weight. I refer to marketing, packaging, buy one get one free and portion size. It is easier to gain weight. A person just grazing his or her way through the day will be overweight.

We used to look to America when I was studying nutrition. We saw pictures of portions and said that is American whereas now it could be Irish. We have the same portion sizes and the same obesity and overweight rates. It is not possible to drive everywhere, sit and watch television every night, eat all these large portion sizes and not put on weight and then be a drain on the health service. Dieticians know this. We have learned all of this, it is not new to us. It is the environment we are living in now and we really need to take action. That involves planning decisions, exercising, marketing, nutrition and education. We have all said that. It is great to get an opportunity to talk to the committee because making decisions that will impact on the health of our children is important.