Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 13 June 2018

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs

Tackling Childhood Obesity: Discussion (Resumed)

9:30 am

Mr. Colin Regan:

It does, of course, but it will take a couple of generations to change that ethos and to reassure clubs that once the changes are made, it becomes the norm. It has been embraced by the young people throughout the country. For instance, St. Finbarr's in Cork, one of our leading healthy clubs, has entered into a very interesting partnership with the local SuperValu to provide the fruit and vegetables and bottles of water for the club's nurseries every Saturday morning. It is win-win. It has cost the club nothing, the local business gets positive promotion and the adults and parents are very grateful to the club for taking this positive step. It requires a bit of thinking outside the box along with proper policy and support and the provision of guidelines from the national level down.

On the Deputy's second point about the fun and run and providing access for people who might not traditionally see themselves as a county star or be able to engage in games in their local club because of any special needs they might have, be they intellectual, physical or sensory, we are driving the implementation of the fun and run through the healthy club model. For instance, Raheny in north Dublin has a Raheny all-stars programme every Saturday morning. The Central Remedial Clinic is in its catchment area so Raheny has a large population base that can benefit from this targeted approach to people who want to engage in physical activity. We know from research that people with special needs are a particular at-risk group for obesity and being overweight because the standard physical activity opportunities are excluded to them.