Jimmy Devins (Sligo-North Leitrim, Independent)

I thank the Minister of State for attending to reply to this topic. I compliment Deputy Dooley for the motion and the Minister of State for the reply to the previous matter. As someone who was involved in GP training for many years, I welcome this move. I am particularly delighted that the expansion has been achieved from a more effective use of existing resources and without the need for extra funding. This is a good news story. It is a message the Government must get out there.

Obesity is a serious problem here. There are more than 4,000 people who die from obesity-related diseases every year in this country. In 1960 we had the leanest children in Europe; in 2010 we have the fattest children in Europe. These are not my words but the words of Dr. Donal O'Shea, an expert in this field. Recently I and 14 of my colleagues had the honour of participating in "Operation Transformation", the RTE television programme, hosted by Gerry Ryan. It allowed us to participate and get benefits of taking simple measures to achieve weight reduction. The public has a major interest in this topic. The website received more than 3 million hits over the course of eight weeks and more than 500,000 people watched the programme every Wednesday night. The public wants information on this issue and it is imperative that Members of the Dáil, and particularly the Government, provide this information.

Yesterday, the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children, under the chairmanship of Deputy Seán Ó Fearghaíl, held a long meeting on obesity. It was a very good discussion, with many contributors. It mainly dealt with the curative aspect, which is very important. I emphasise two points that arose from the discussion. There is only one HSE clinic in the country that deals with this problem. As Dr. O'Shea and others said at the meeting, we should have four, with one in each HSE area.

Surgery is essential for those who are morbidly obese. We need some 400 operations every year and at the moment the HSE has the capacity to carry out 100. I request that the Department considers providing the facilities to allow it to happen. However, I am conscious that we live in a severe economic situation. We must be cognisant of the costs involved. Prevention is better than cure and "Operation Transformation" showed the way we can achieve excellent results by prevention rather than having to spend a major amount of money currently needed to effect a good cure.

There are three actions that can be taken at minimal cost, the first of which being that we publicise the benefits of exercise. Obesity is not a complicated problem. It results from people taking in more calories than they use up. If one exercises - walking is a simple exercise and costs no money - one can achieve great results. Second, we could use the traffic light system in respect of food labelling, namely, green for foods that allow one to go; amber for foods that are potentially dangerous and red for foods that are dreadful. Third, we could request the public health system to weigh at neo-natal and primary school level every child in the country and to then send home to parents the message that Johnny or Mary is 10% or 20% over weight and setting out the health risks that implies.

I am aware there exists a task force dealing with this issue and that it is doing very good work. I am interested to hear from the Minister of State what the task force is doing. I appeal to the House to provide time to for a full debate on the huge epidemic of obesity currently threatening our country. Some 4,000 people die every year from obesity.

See this speech in context