Ms Kathryn Walsh:

This is a most topical issue. I am not sure if the Deputy is aware, but we presented to the Joint Oireachtas Committee Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media a number of weeks ago in a discussion of the online safety and media regulation Bill 2020. We need a ban on junk food marketing to children. We need statutory regulation of that. Voluntary codes do not work and they have not worked. Evidence produced over decades illustrates that it does not, and will not, work. Broadcast regulations have been produced by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland. There is a broadcast watershed that we believe needs to be extended.

Online junk food marketing has become a particular problem, as young people, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic, have migrated online for educational purposes in particular. We believe that a statutory ban on junk food marketing to children has to happen. In the UK, the Government committed to introducing an online junk food marketing ban and to extend the watershed from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the Queen's speech.

The Irish Heart Foundation commissioned a public health (obesity) Bill. We presented it to the previous Government and it made it into the programme for Government. There is a commitment to pass such a Bill. We believe and hope that the Bill will be brought forward. We have a serious concern that the commitment in respect of the public health (obesity) bill within the recently published Healthy Ireland strategic framework is just to explore with stakeholders the issues relating to the introduction of the Bill. We are concerned that the Bill will not go further than an initial exploration. It goes to the Deputy's point about the vested interests involved and what was discussed earlier about the commercial determinants of health.

In every group that has been established on obesity policy in Ireland, the food and drink industry has been at the table. Through the submission of freedom of information requests in respect of the voluntary code of practice for non-broadcast marketing that was published three years ago, we know that in some instances the food and drink industry asserted that its members would not agree to it and it needed to be changed. At the last minute, the Department of Health had to pander to industry to change that. When industry is represented in these groups, it is hard for change to happen. If we want change to happen and the scourge of junk food marketing to be eliminated, industry must be removed from the equation. Representatives from the industry should not be sitting at the table in policy discussions. That is not just the case in respect of junk food marketing; it applies to all harmful products. The passing of the Public Health (Alcohol) Act 2018 serves as an example. We need statutory regulation. If Government and the Oireachtas do not intervene, these practices will continue because voluntary codes simply do not work.