Cecilia Keaveney (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)

It was officially announced this week that we have a serious problem with obesity. I wish to raise a matter which could be a core tenet of any solution to this problem. In the past eight years, this Government has delivered sporting facilities all over the country and nobody can deny the huge advances that have been made in almost every parish. However, we are competing with a very sedentary lifestyle and the primacy of television, video, DVD, computer, Game Boy and so on. Toddlers know how to insert a video into a player and how to turn on the television with a remote control device. Children observe the behaviour of others and turning on the television or video recorder becomes normal for them. Indeed, we are often amused when very young children can perform such tasks.

We must understand that babies are aware of all that is going on around them. They understand words before they can speak, they attempt to walk before they have developed the physical capacity to do so. They also develop concepts of what is right and acceptable or what is wrong and unacceptable. By the time children reach five years of age, most of their character is formed by what they have observed around them since birth. If one observes young girls, practically from the moment they can walk, they try to put on their mothers' make-up and walk in her high heeled shoes. This underscores the fact that what happens in their environment as an infant will impinge on their attitudes to certain activities. It is almost too late, at five years of age, to introduce children to arts or physical activity like sport if they have not encountered this in those they have been observing up to that point.

I wish to see interdepartmental interaction between the Department of Health and Children, the Department of Arts, Sports and Tourism, the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs and the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government that will ensure that there are play areas for our young people from the earliest age, not just for teenagers. I am aware that plans are afoot to develop skateboard parks for the teenage cohort.

We do not need to look to other countries for examples of best practice — they exist here. We had a brief scheme that delivered to some children and I congratulate the Minister for that. However, the reality in County Donegal is that there are over 30 communities that wish to be served by a playground facility. The local authority is willing to drive the issue at ground level, but there is a lack of funding.

We must accept the fact that children must get involved in physical activity from the earliest possible age. Parents must be encouraged to play with their children, as was the situation with the 'sugradh le chéile' idea that was once promoted. The facilities must be provided to enable this to happen. Wherever one sees age-graded playgrounds, one sees activity, fun and enjoyment. We should aspire to provide facilities that would allow five to ten year olds to bring along bicycles and cycle around roundabouts, learn signalling to stop and go and so forth. Such facilities are available in many parts of the UK and in Spain. However, age-graded playgrounds are ideal for children under five.

Currently, the provision of playgrounds for young people seems to be falling between Departments and is thus not getting the priority it deserves. I ask the Minister to examine the issue, to ensure that initial cross-departmental action begins, to make an individual responsible for the provision of play facilities and to talk to the local authorities, which are very enthusiastic about this area.

Play facilities are one of the solutions to the obesity problem and much money will be spent on solving that particular problem. However, it does not require much money to put a basic play infrastructure in place that will encourage parents and extended families to play with children.

If young people see physical activity as a normal part of the life of those around them, their sense of play will expand into an acceptance of sports at a later age. This will offer a counter balance to the time that will be spent at a school desk or in front of a screen. We must ensure that the aspiration to achieve points in exams is not the main pursuit of young people. We must aim for balance in life. This is a goal worth pursuing and the funding involved would be money well spent in problem prevention. Providing children with musical stools to play on should be our objective and I do not want to see the issue of play facilities fall between departmental stools any longer.

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