Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The World Health Organization policy recommendations are what we are trying to follow through on now. That is a reason we have taken some action following on from the World Health Organization's recommendations. A tax on unhealthy foods is one of the things we are talking about. We are also looking at marketing restrictions, subsidies for fruit and vegetables and mandatory front of packet nutrition labelling. There are two of those. A tax on unhealthy foods is one we have already worked on where I talked about the sugar tax. The mandatory front of packet nutrition labelling is the second, which is being worked on. There is a proposal from the European Commission on that which is ongoing. It is something that we need to try to work on now both in Ireland and at a European level.

The other approach then is about media campaigns and getting correct information out there. It is also about working with the different Government Departments, say, agriculture and education and within the whole schools meals programme. It is about ensuring that it is not just good enough to provide the school meals programme but that it must also be nutritional.

We must ensure that people have access to healthy food that can help children and families and that is what we are doing at the moment. It is not just one Department but requires the involvement of quite a lot of Departments.