Martin Conway (Fine Gael)
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I congratulate the Minister of State on his appointment. He is a diligent and very thoughtful contributor here in the health committee. I have no doubt he will bring the same commitment to his new and very important role.

The Minister of State mentioned that some of the smaller shops in Cork do not stock fruit while there are bars of chocolate and ice cream and all that type of thing. The problem small shops have is that fruit goes off very quickly and there would be a significant amount of waste. Maybe something could be done through the Department to create an incentive for retailers to have fruit more prominently displayed.

I am concerned about the difficulties and challenges people and communities face in establishing farmers' markets. We all know that the vast majority of products that are sold in farmers' markets are healthy such as fruits, vegetables, gardening products and that type of thing. With the various by-laws and councils around the country some are very good, some are very supportive but others are very poor and work against the establishment of farmers' markets that would sell all the types of organic product that others here have spoken about. Perhaps there might be some advisory role the Department could adopt in encouraging the healthy Ireland sections of the local authorities to actually become more engaged with the planners and the people who set up by-laws, in order to encourage farmers' markets. This certainly leads to people purchasing more healthy products.

Free school meals is a great initiative. I have heard the calls from NGOs looking for free school meals to be provided during the summer period. Does the Department of Health take an active interest in the free school meals initiative? Does it have an advisory role with the Department of Education? Is there a role the Department of Health could play that would be more hands-on? Clearly the Minister of State's Department has a very specific brief. The Department of Social Protection has the brief of providing school meals but how do we stand over the quality from a healthy Ireland and healthy eating perspective of the whole free school meals concept, which is quite good? The Department of Health should have more of a role in advising schools on whole area of free school meals. Perhaps the Minister of State will address those points.