Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Colm Burke, to his first outing before the committee on that side of the table. He spent many years on this side of the table. I wish the Minister of State and his Department well in the pursuit of this particular subject and others. Likewise, I welcome Safefood. This is a very important subject which has a huge impact on the quality of life of both our young and ageing population. It has a third factor, in that it extends North and South, which is hugely important as we proceed into the future and address the issues that can make a difference to our populations both North and South.

First, this requires education and a new programme of education to highlight the issues that are the most salient and most likely to have an early impact on obesity for children and for people, like me, who have to address these issues on an ongoing basis. It is also an opportunity to identify the issues that are most likely to have an effect on consumers - we call them all consumers - and identify how we are doing that and to what extent we can do it in the future. For example, do we have a red-flag system to deal with food manufacturers? I refer to a system that rates food as healthy, medium, or otherwise. How aggressive a campaign can we mount to address this?

In the context of the education system and schools, as well as homes, as has already been mentioned, there are challenges for less well-off families and their abilities to cope with the situation. There are two challenges in this regard. One challenge is to try to ensure that the younger generation growing up is appeased, while at the same time pushing them in the direction of healthy eating, healthy food and the healthy manufacturing of food.

A rating band would be hugely important. While a certain amount of that already exists, it is not graphic enough to be able to get the attention of everyone in the supermarket, in the small corner shop or wherever. For parents with children, the tendency is to try to appease the child at a crucial time at the till, especially if the child stamps a small foot on the ground and refuses the direction in which he or she is being encouraged. I witnessed this many times myself and I understand what it is like. The parent will find themselves in a tempting situation in which he or she must decide between peace or peace of mind for the future. These are my first questions on which I would like further response from all of the contributors, including the Minister of State.