Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

There are two significant ways of dealing with this issue, one of which is the provision of facilities. In all major extensions and new school buildings, particularly at second level, state-of-the-art gymnasia are being installed, including, for example, a balcony area with fitness equipment, which seems to be particularly attractive to teenage girls. Even though this adds substantially to the cost of physical education halls, I have decided that we should continue with this type of development as it is a way of keeping girls involved and fit.

The second way to deal with this issue is through the summer works programme. Last year, my Department provided over €2.3 million for outdoor play areas for schools. This enabled them to resurface basketball courts and so on. This is an attempt to improve the facilities in schools throughout the country. The general purpose room in schools can also be used for physical education.

A significant number of schools are now adopting a healthy eating policy and I recommend that more do so. Obviously, this is something that must be done in conjunction with parents. We cannot just ban junk food in schools and have children arriving to school with nothing. A healthy food policy must be implemented with parents' associations, which may be guided by the schools as to what is appropriate for children.

The SPHE programme, which includes information on nutrition, also includes a media awareness unit, which makes children realise how much advertising is targeted at them. It encourages children to be objective with regard to advertising. From the point of view of education, I am anxious to facilitate any initiatives that would improve the health of children. However, the parents who are looking for more time for physical education in schools are the ones who drive their children to school, collect them from school, bring them home, put them in front of a video and then give them a Gameboy for the rest of the night. A balance must be brought back into this discussion.

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