Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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Thank you for all the presentations. One term that stuck out during Ms Leydon's presentation was "income stream". I did not like to hear it but it is the reality. Another word that stood out for me was "sedentary". This runs on from Deputy Neville's question and I will direct it toward Mr. Duffy. How can parents and educators work together to minimise sedentary behaviour in young people?

I have a question for Ms Leydon on a matter mentioned in her presentation. Can she explain what a leadership post would involve and what responsibilities the post would have? How should we frame a policy document that would require an equally robust implementation framework? Do the deputations understand my question? There is little value in having a great policy or framework if it is not implemented properly. We have to look at the structures that we will be putting in place. If we do not weigh and measure and operate with flexibility around children, how will we ever get a real approach to this?

This needs to be done through early intervention. It should be happening in preschools. We were talking about it happening in our health centres. The reason some commentators use the whole idea of weighing and measuring flexibility when taking measurements is that there would then be a proper framework for addressing the problem. Where do the witnesses think such interventions would be best positioned? Would they welcome professionals coming into schools to do this or would it would be better carried out in public health centres? It has to be addressed somewhere along the line because we have an epidemic and we need to gather the data and research. I am not advocating for this to be done in schools but asking about the elephant in the room. When I refer to measuring I am talking about children's flexibility, which affects their ability to participate in sport. Sometimes children feel that they are not able to run properly, which holds them back from doing a particular form of sporting activity. While they may feel they are no good at anything, they may have a condition. They might be growing so quickly that their tendons have not caught up, which holds them back in respect of running. I refer to that sort of idea.

Where do the witnesses think such an initiative would be best positioned? Perhaps that is a question for Mr. Browne. It is hard for teachers or those advocating in this area to answer. I would love to see where it could sit because we will need to start gathering the data. We cannot just gather data on the basis of one school here and one school there or one location here and another location there. We have to have a broad sweep in order to gather the data. If Professor O'Shea and his team are to do their job and do it well, they have to start gathering data and getting results. We must have benchmarks to identify whether we are making improvements. Where do we start gathering the data?