Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. I refer to the issue around social determinants, which I believe is an enormous issue in working class areas where people are finding it difficult to put food on the table. People might do it but at a lower quality. That is feeding into childhood obesity, and so forth. That will have a trigger effect on a child when they are growing up because they will have access to poor and ultra-processed foods. Again, that is a socioeconomic factor as to what we can consume. How one addresses that is by people having better incomes and their food is better rather than the ultra-processed foods.

With regard to all of the marketing, which goes with these processed foods, the amount of money which goes into the marketing of these type of foods is pretty staggering. The people who are behind this are quite smart, if not too smart, because they want to make a person consume certain products not just in small quantities but for the person to eat as much as they want. That is the biggest factor of all. These foods become addictive, particularly for small children. Once a person consumes so much of these products, they will then have health difficulties not only in the present time but also in the future time by way of diabetes and obesity.

We are all losing the war on marketing. The people who are winning this war are the marketeers of these huge companies which are immensely profitable. How can we address that, and challenge it through legislation, in regard to the marketing of what they are trying to sell? Again, this is a general question.