Ms Kathryn Walsh:

I welcome the comments of the Senator and his support for our Stop Targeting Kids campaign and for the parents who are outside Leinster House today. It is an issue that is very important to them as they see first-hand the advertisements that children are seeing.

As regards the funding of health promotion, I do not want to see industry taking part in health promotion activities in schools. It might be seen as a good co-operative political activity but health promotion should be undertaken by health promotion professionals. That is very important because if we were beholden to industry to undertake actions, that would leave us in an ominous position. Those actions should have been taken by the State and should be part and parcel of the education given to children.

In terms of media literacy, it is important we have that type of education, but it is important that while delivering that media literacy, we recognise media literacy will never offset advertising practices and the harm done from advertising practices. I touched on this earlier. It is such an emotive issue. Toddlers know their brands before they know their ABCs. That is a fact of life. They recognise these brands before they can speak or know their ABCs. These advertising practices are linked to emotion, fun and love, so we will never offset that emotional connection.

It is similar to when we ask if we can mount a campaign for healthy food. That will never work. If one says "have a break, have a broccoli", it does not twinge with a person. Nor does "because the lady loves mangetout". It will never work, because those brands have an emotional connection with people.

In terms of the watershed, we very much want to see that extended to 9 p.m. The Senator mentioned some brilliant statistics which have been conducted. Children are seeing junk fund advertisements during that family time when they are sitting down with their families, but because of current audience profiles, it is not considered to be advertising for children. However, they are seeing it and it is advertisements for pizzas and high-sugar foods they are seeing. That broadcast watershed needs to extended, as a minimum, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.