Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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I heard the Minister of State say that. Earlier she mentioned in her opening statement the ubiquitous promotion and advertising of unhealthy food and the shocking fact that 20% of primary school children have been categorised as obese. Given the fact that there is massive spending on the promotion of unhealthy food, does she not think that emphasis should be on cutting this off at the pass rather than trying to counteract very effective and very well resourced promotional campaigns and advertisements, which children cannot avoid? Does she not think that she needs to tackle that at source rather than try to counteract it by using mild enough messages that are put out through Healthy Ireland?

The Minister of State has referenced the progress that has been made with smoking. However, at a certain point, the then Minister for Health, Deputy Micheál Martin, stopped this thing about smoking cessation programmes and advertising that encouraged people to give up smoking. He actually introduced the law that changed that and made it very difficult for people to smoke. That was a big challenge. He took on the industry. Does the Minister of State not think that the same kind of approach is needed now in respect of the fast food industry, in particular?