Mr. Chris Macey:

Do we want to ban vending machines outright? Yes, we do. We cannot have healthy food going up against unhealthy food because the unhealthy food will always win. When we take the junk food away, children will enjoy the healthy, nutritious food. As far as we are concerned, healthy food and drink provision should be the norm in schools. There is no need for fizzy drinks. The Department had a Circular on this and it seems to just accept that unhealthy food is going to be in our schools. There is no reason it should be. For us, it is very clear that we need to get the junk food and vending machines out of schools. On the notion of healthy vending, there was a proposal before about a 60:40 ratio of healthy to unhealthy foods. Again, apples will not be eaten if chocolate bars are available. There are also issues about keeping fresh foods within vending machines, which is a whole other area.

On ring-fencing, we are told it cannot be done. It is being done in the UK, where they are bringing in the same sugar-sweetened drink tax. They call it the narrative of hypothecation, which means it is not actual ring-fencing but it sort of actually is. They are going to fund physical education facilities within schools and other things from it. We understand there will be €40 million coming out of this tax in Ireland. That is what the Department of Finance is saying. If we are serious about tackling this problem, why would we take the money away from people? More of this tax is going to be coming out of disadvantaged areas. Given that the obesity and overweight problem is bigger in such areas, why not put the money back into those communities?

To clarify the issue around free drinking water, our survey was of 50 schools so it was 40% of those 50 schools. It is very clear to me from being in schools around the country that there is not free drinking water in all schools. In the schools we surveyed, Coca-Cola was as available as free drinking water. That situation is not acceptable and is not going to help combat the obesity problem.