Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The health promoting schools, HPS, initiative is a Europe-wide programme aimed to strengthen a school’s capacity to be a healthy setting for learning and working by focusing on whole-school level and all the conditions that affect health and well-being. As part of the HPS initiative, health promotion officers and members of the well-being pillar of professional health and service for teachers collaborate on a regional basis to ensure schools are supported in meeting the health needs of their students. That is the Department’s role, to provide the supports, guidance and policies. It is not to lecture to every school about what it has to do in every situation. That is not necessarily our role. We try to encourage responsible thinking and development and put the supports in place to do that.

That is a planning matter. That is a local decision. In most of these towns there are premises that serve food of all kinds. It is not a straightforward question of dealing with new applications. In many school settings there are already premises in the vicinity which makes it a little more difficult when it comes to planning. It has worked out properly in most cases. Planning authorities generally do a sound job when it comes to making these decisions. That is their job. It is not the job of the Department of Education and Skills to have a role in the planning matters of every town and village in the country.

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