Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his response. The context for this, as I outlined in my question, is a secondary school in Greystones which brought a legal challenge to a planning application for a McDonald's which was to be located less than 100 m from the entrance to the school and would have been the closest food outlet to three schools. As the Minister of State would recognise, this is a national issue rather than being confined to the local matter in Greystones of which we are all aware.

There is a disconnect between what parents and communities want in terms of the appalling health status of our young people, what the Government hopes to achieve through Healthy Ireland, and the reality of what young people are actually eating at school. Ireland is in the throes of an obesity epidemic with as many as one in five teenagers obese or overweight, yet there is currently no national standard to ensure that healthy, tasty and nutritious foods are provided at second level. The guidelines at primary level are also weak. There is no strategy, plan or guideline from the Department of Education and Skills to ensure that schoolchildren are not used as captive consumers for fast food and sugary food outlets. The Greystones saga illustrates this point.

Will the Minister of State agree to set up in interdepartmental group to design planning guidelines for "no-fry zones" close to schools? Will he agree to a ban on vending machines in schools selling sugary products? Will he put a more ambitious plan in place to bolster nutrition inside our schools?

See this speech in context