Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thought of a couple of points as I was listening earlier. I wish to make sure I have them correct in my head. The witnesses can correct me where I am wrong, which is usually the case. We are talking about primary prevention, part of which is selling. We all probably become hospital-centric, at times, when we think about being healthy and looking after ourselves. We think in individual scenarios that we will train more, eat better and do whatever is necessary. I get the point that we cannot rely in an awful lot of circumstances on individual behaviour. It is always beneficial when people partake in best practice. It is also about the environment. I think Dr. Campbell said that 50% of the basis of your health is your socioeconomic setting - everything from family to environment and the resources you have - 30% is behaviour and 20% is access to healthcare. I think she used the phrase "health in all policy". Then, we are down to what we can do. We spoke about commercial detriment, It is a fact that industry has sold itself and pushed us in a particular way as we look at dealing with this issue. It is either a matter of hospital-centric thinking in dealing with disease or of trying to push people into the best individual behaviour. It has not been particularly successful, it would be fair to say.

In the examples the witnesses used, they spoke about green zones and proximity. We all understand, particularly when talking about alcohol, that if it was discovered today, it would be banned outright but prohibition probably does not work across the board. We could have a long conversation on drugs but today is not the day for that. There needs to be proper interaction with the commission on taxation and between health and finance in getting down to basics. It is about marketing, prices and availability and how we deal with that. There were some really strong points about how the alcohol industry can put its €150 million against the €65,000 the State will pony up in some way, shape or form.

There are two things for us to consider - that we have to sell to people what the big wins are and the easiest way to implement this. On some level, we all want to get those big wins. They are not only great for society; they are great for government coffers regarding the amount of money we end up spending. We need workable solutions. When we are discussing subsidies, it probably means a long conversation with the European Commission and whoever else. For this to happen, some of it needs to happen at a wider European level. It is about the information we need from the point of view of selling the argument and where we can introduce the big wins that make people healthier, which in turn means we spend less and get more bang for our buck.