Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Dr. Brooks and Ms O'Flaherty for their replies. There are 4,500 crèches registered for the ECCE scheme and €1 million is spent on capital funding for outdoor spaces, which works out at €222 per facility. I know that is not how the money is divided but €1 million is not nearly enough. Capacity is an issue and outdoor spaces are being used to increase capacity. ECCE providers are telling me that they are not getting enough support in terms of outdoor space provision. In that context, we need initiatives to inform people that children can move around in a class setting. Is there a policy on children moving every ten minutes within the hour? Sitting down is our new killer. We have to teach children to get up and move. If we are not investing in outdoor spaces, are we educating staff on mobility in an indoor setting? I do not think €1 million is enough.

In terms of weighing and measuring children, my view is that we must develop a database, perhaps as part of the GP contract. We should be normalising what we are doing, regardless of the setting.

However, we need to start gathering data. The best way to gather data, if we are talking about the early years sector, is among the 97% take-up in the ECCE. Surely we should be starting at the first point of entry. That should be with the GP, but there should be a mechanism for continuing it.

One of the presentations referred to which socio-economic groups are more likely to include levels of obesity. If everyone is attending an early childhood setting, is that not the most normal way, with the policy document and everything else that is being launched, to be able to engage with the parents and provide feedback? If it is done in a normal setting, to be quite honest, it is no different than holding one's pen.

My main questions for Ms O'Flaherty relate to how the Department of Health measures and collects the data and the buy-in of the GP contract. How many data have been gathered? Has the Department analysed the data that have come in and what percentage of them have been collected? It is now we should be doing this. That was all I have for Ms O'Flaherty.