Mr. Chris Macey:

I will deal mainly with food provision in post-primary schools, where we believe there is a particular problem. It might seem blindingly obvious that the best way our schools can contribute to the fight against our childhood obesity crisis is through more effective education. However, we know the vast majority of our children and young people are already keenly aware of the importance of a healthy diet and are concerned about the amount of fat, sugar and salt in products they consume, yet over one in four children in Ireland is overweight or obese.

Our key message today is that what they are being taught in the classroom is being undermined by a school environment that often not only fails to enable healthy choices, but is a powerful promoter of unhealthy eating.

The Irish Heart Foundation has a long track record of supporting healthy eating as well as health-related physical activity in the school system. Two years ago, we published research which found a proliferation of "snackeries" emerging in post-primary schools, with 70% of those surveyed offering items such as sausage rolls, mini pizzas, danish pastries and cookies. Over a quarter had tuck shops, selling sweets and soft drinks, and 47% had vending machines, while 40% had no access to free drinking water. In other words, there was no great difference between the availability of fizzy drinks and water in these schools.

This is what confronts schoolchildren every day. They learn about the food pyramid and the need to limit their intake of treat foods and drinks, but for many once they leave the classroom, junk products are everywhere all day long. The temptation pupils face is constant. The contradiction in what they are taught and what is widely available to them is breathtaking. It does not end there. Junk food and drinks companies use many strategies to target children within schools, including advertising on vending machines; exclusive contracts to sell particular products; sponsorship of school programmes and events; branded educational materials; and company-sponsored fundraising.

Pupils are also besieged outside the school gates. Some 70% of schools have a fast-food outlet within 1 km, and 30% have at least five. Today, we are not addressing the bombardment of individually targeted junk-food advertising especially via young people’s smartphones, dubbed the "brand in the hand" by marketers, but this is further manipulating their eating habits.

In the midst of these unprecedented challenges for young people, it is important to acknowledge two crucial policy initiatives undertaken in recent weeks that demonstrate a new determination by the State to tackle obesity, those being, the sugar sweetened drinks tax and nutrition standards governing the school meals programme, which can have a profound effect, particularly on the long-term health of pupils in disadvantaged areas.

What can policy makers do to protect schoolchildren's health better? We need an urgent implementation of no-fry zones outside schools to stop further targeting of campuses by junk food firms, along with tough regulation, particularly of digital marketing to children. Inside schools, we need a commitment to a whole-of-school approach to health and healthy eating in which, although education is as important as ever, all schools practise what their lessons preach by incorporating health and nutrition policies, physical activity, the physical environment, the social environment and school-community relationships.

Although school food accounts for a growing proportion of pupils' food and calorie intake, at a time when 26% of children are overweight or obese, it is not subject to any national standard. Of the schools we surveyed, 95% said that it should. The quicker such standards are introduced and workable models are integrated nationally, the more children can be saved from heading down a society-made path to lives blighted by chronic disease and premature death.

We have a school catering award that helps post-primary schools to adopt healthier cooking practices and food choices. It is crystal clear from our experience that healthy school food cannot co-exist with junk food within the school perimeter. For example, if a child is given a choice between an apple and a bar of chocolate, he or she will almost always choose the bar. Take the chocolate away, though, and the apple will always be eaten. Consequently, removing all junk food from sale, including through vending machines, is a prerequisite for making healthy food provision the norm in post-primary schools. Financial support should be available from the proceeds of the sugar tax to provide facilities, equipment and whatever else is necessary to promote healthy eating and to ensure that drinking water is always freely available.

Although guidelines state that two hours of physical education per week should be provided in post-primary schools, just 4% achieve this in first year, 3% in second year, 1% in third year and none in fifth and sixth years. This has to change for both physical and mental health reasons.