Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their presentations. I am begin with Mr. Treacy. I have an excellent relationship with the local sports partnership in Galway. We had a positive engagement with Fit Towns a little more than two years ago. The witnesses should tell everybody about Fit Towns and the concept behind it, because it got the whole town moving in the middle of winter. I have to credit Mr. Mick Hurley and Mr. Jason Craughwell with all of this. It is something that has been rolled out throughout the whole county since then. It made us a little bit competitive. It includes people from the very young to older persons. One can move in the morning, noon or evening in that sphere. It has been very welcome. There was funding for it.

I want Mr. Treacy to talk about the role of county councils, because he did hit on it a little bit. When we talk about the role of county councils, we have to talk about the outdoor recreation infrastructure scheme grants that are available, as well as the town and village renewal scheme. We also have to talk about communities. We are talking about obesity across the entire nation. It does not stop at the 50 km mark outside any town, village or city. There are communities out there that are not towns, villages or urban communities. They are very rural, but they have a definition, that is, a sense of community. That is where the likes of those grants are important. We need to build on the capacity of people that want to move and want a huge involvement in it.

It is to do with the changing culture. I am fortunate in that I live on what is now a blueway and I hope it will become a greenway. I have Ireland's Ancient East on one side and I am not far away from the Atlantic on the other side. At the same time this is about how have a conversation about obesity without having to use that word. It is about getting children moving. Children cannot get moving unless the people in certain positions have the right tools. When we implemented our Fit Towns scheme, with which we were successful, we used our €5,000 fund to buy Slí na Sláinte signage. That was fantastic. We got the materials and Slí na Sláinte worked well with us. We worked with Coillte and the Office of Public Works, OPW, but regrettably the local authority would not allow us to put down a pole. To this day, two and a half years later, the Slí na Sláinte signs are still sitting in a council yard because we could not break through that bit of red tape. I am telling the committee my experience in my community. That is mirrored throughout the entire country. We could have people walking 5 km on a regular basis. That would include parents bringing their children or grandparents bringing their children.

I have a question for Mr. Conlon. I am adamant that somebody with the purse strings of the DEIS programme should come before us. What percentage of schools participate in the schools meals programme? If we are serious about tackling childhood obesity, understanding plate size and bringing about this magnificent cultural change, we also have to change the understanding of what is the norm.

The norm will be whatever is delivered through the DEIS programme and how people understand it and then bring it home. We have to realise that magnificent change because it is not in place at the moment.

Many schools could benefit from DEIS involvement in all schools and all ECCE crèche areas as well. What percentage of national schools, secondary schools and early childcare settings are benefitting? We can see what the gap is if we find out.

I am pleased Deputy Sherlock asked about the START programme because I would have asked exactly the same question otherwise. To me the work of safefood is based on research and feeds into research. What research has safefood done recently that has been feed in? Perhaps Ms Foley-Nolan will tell me that the START programme came from that research.

I am also interested in the safefood recommendations in the A Healthy Weight for Ireland document. Reference was made to measuring height and weight for children routinely in schools. The report states that it is well-established that parents do not recognise excessive weight in themselves or their children. The belief is that normalising the measurement of bodily weight status will help to overcome this barrier to behavioural change. I have this battle continuously. Three unions were before the committee some weeks back. They said there was no way they would agree to the proposal. I want to hear the thought process of safefood representatives. How do they envisage it operating? Who should be doing it? Is it in a school environment or a sports environment? Where should this be rolled out?