Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

Our schools promote, support and encourage healthy eating and physical exercise in a range of ways. Physical education is part of the curriculum at primary and at post-primary level and plays a key role not just in giving students an opportunity to exercise during the school day but also in encouraging a positive attitude towards physical activity which students will, hopefully, carry with them into adult life.

With regard to educating students about making good food choices, a curriculum in social, personal and health education is mandatory for all primary students and its implementation is being assisted by a full-time support service. Health and well-being with food and nutrition are two areas dealt with under the "taking care of my body" unit of that curriculum. The objective is that by fifth and sixth class, pupils should be enabled to realise that they, as individuals, have some responsibility for adopting a healthy balanced diet and for taking regular and appropriate exercise.

All second level schools have been required to provide SPHE as part of the junior cycle curriculum since September 2003. The aims of this programme include preparing students for responsible decision making and promoting their physical, mental and emotional health and well-being.

Quite apart from curricular provision, schools can implement measures to encourage physical activity during school breaks and schools already play a major role in promoting the involvement of students in sporting activities in the wider community. Sports organisations such as the Gaelic Athletic Association, Basketball Ireland, the Football Association of Ireland provide extensive opportunities for schools to participate in sport.

Together, the above initiatives ensure that children not only get opportunities to exercise at school but also learn about balanced nutrition and making good food choices. I believe that schools are playing their part in terms of promoting a healthy diet and adequate physical exercise for children. However, it is important to remember that children spend just 20% of their waking hours at school so schools can only do so much with regard to promoting exercise and healthy eating and the main role must rest with parents.

Regarding sports equipment grants, my Department has provided in excess of €5.5 million in grant aid to primary schools specifically for this purpose, to enable them to provide coaching or mentoring in connection with physical education or to purchase resource materials associated with the provision of physical education. Materials and equipment purchased by schools in previous years will generally be available to them for subsequent years. The question of a further grant will be kept under review as part of the normal Estimates process in the coming years. Schools can also use their general capitation funding to support the implementation of curricula, including physical education. Since 1997 the standard rate of capitation grant has been increased from £45 or €57.14 per pupil to €133.58 in the current year, an increase of almost 134% in the period.

The position on the question of banning the sale of certain foods in schools is that schools are privately owned, privately managed institutions which, although funded by the State, enjoy a large degree of autonomy. It is, therefore, primarily a matter for the boards of management of individual schools to devise policies on the types of food that are available on the school premises and such policies should be driven by the needs and the welfare of the students. I know that many schools have developed healthy eating policies in co-operation with their parents' associations and I would encourage others to do so.

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