Finian McGrath (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will be speaking on this matter for the Minister of State, Deputy Catherine Byrne, who asked me to pass on her regrets that she is unable to be here today. On her behalf, I thank the House for this opportunity to discuss the report of the Joint Committee on Children and Youth Affairs on tackling childhood obesity and the important work that is going on in the Department of Health on this important topic under the aegis of the national obesity policy and action plan launched in late 2016.

The joint committee's report emphasises the scale of this issue in Ireland at the outset of its comprehensive and in-depth report. The Growing Up in Ireland study is cited when the committee's report states the proportion of children at different ages who are overweight or obese.

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The annual Healthy Ireland Survey 2017 showed that 30% of young people aged 15 to 24 are overweight or obese. Being a healthy weight is no longer the norm. The Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative, COSI, is conducted by the national nutrition surveillance centre in UCD on behalf of the Department of Health and the HSE. Its last report draws on data from more than 17,000 examinations of primary school children in Ireland between 2008 and 2015. Among the key trends emerging is that the levels of overweight and obesity in children in first class in Ireland - children aged 7 and 8 years - appears to be stabilising. However, it is also evident that this stabilisation is not observed in children attending DEIS schools, and there is also a marked difference between girls and boys, with more young girls tending to be overweight and obese. While any positive direction in the trends is welcome there is certainly no room for complacency. The next report from the Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative is anticipated later this year. The Joint Committee on Health clearly acknowledged this in its detailed report when it concluded that, on the basis of the statistics and the various materials and submissions it received during its extensive hearings, the topic of childhood obesity warranted in-depth scrutiny of the issues associated with it.

With the publication of the committee’s report, the Department of Health will be submitting it to the national obesity policy implementation oversight group for its consideration. This national oversight group was established under the chair of the Department of Health. It is comprised of representatives from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, the Department of Children and Youth Affairs, the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection, the Department of Education and Skills, the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, University College Cork, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, the Health Service Executive - including the national clinical lead for obesity, and Safefood. This oversight group from a diverse range of Departments and agencies represents the whole-of-Government approach to tackling obesity encapsulated in the national obesity policy and action plan. It is about joined-up thinking and how we respond to obesity and its underlying causes. I say this in the context of fully acknowledging and allaying the concerns reported on this aspect of dealing with obesity in the joint committee’s report.

The oversight group has been meeting since October 2017 for the purposes of providing oversight to the implementation of the national obesity policy and action plan. In submitting it to the oversight group and prioritising it on the agenda for its forthcoming meeting, the joint committee’s report will then be considered for the explicit purposes of, among others, aligning both sets of recommendations.

The consequences of child obesity are significant. Being overweight or obese carries with it an increased risk of several chronic diseases, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes and certain cancers. In addition to the physical health implications, there is also a significant reduction in quality of life, a reduced opportunity to contribute to society and reach potential, as well as mental health implications for some people. For children, obesity carries a stigma and may be linked with bullying.

We also cannot ignore the financial dimension to this challenge. In 2015 it was estimated that the total lifetime cost of childhood overweight and obesity in Ireland was €4.6 billion. This is the landscape of obesity that we must deal with and what our obesity policy seeks to address. We know that obesity is a complex problem with nutritional, activity-related, psychological, biological and social determinants. Consequently, any realistic solutions must be multifaceted and be implemented as part of a suite of measures. The policy acknowledges the importance of an integrated approach across Government to tackle the social determinants of health and well-being, and in particular those which contribute to health inequalities in the population.

The policy is informed by the Healthy Ireland principles to ensure it is life-course oriented, with a focus on children and families; and prevention focused, with an emphasis on targeting inequalities. The policy contains concrete indicators to measure the success of its implementation. It set a short-term target of 0.5% per annum for a sustained downward trend in levels of excess weight in children and a reduction in the gap in obesity levels between the highest and lowest socio-economic groups by 10%. The development of the obesity policy involved a consultation with children and young people facilitated by the citizen participation unit of the Department of Children and Youth Affairs, and recruitment supported through the Irish Primary Principals Network as well as Comhairle na nÓg. The report of this consultation Healthy Lifestyles — Have Your Say was launched with the obesity policy, and the implementation of the policy commits to continuing to include the voices and contributions of children and young people.

I believe that every Member of this House acknowledges that individuals and families need to be supported to make informed choices in healthy eating and in being physically active so they can achieve and maintain a healthy weight. The obesity policy and action plan, strives to empower individuals, families and communities to enhance their own skills to improve their health. The national obesity policy prescribes ten steps that would be taken to prevent overweight and obesity. Under each step there are a number of actions, some of which have been identified for early implementation. I am pleased to report that we have already made progress in a number of areas that are directly relevant and of particular interest to child obesity. In addition to establishing the national obesity policy implementation oversight group, which I referenced earlier, the Minister for Finance announced in budget 2018 the introduction of a sugar tax on sugar-sweetened drinks. The policy objective of this levy is to reduce rates of obesity, as well as rates of dental deterioration particularly in young people. As the House is aware, the sugar-sweetened drinks tax regulations commenced on the 1 May 2018. It represents a positive step in our national policy to deal with the problem of obesity.

The national oversight group also gave early approval to the establishment of sub-groups on reformulation and on healthy eating as initial priority areas for action. The reformulation sub-group is technical in its work programme. Work is well under way in this regard on a roadmap for the reformulation of foods and drinks to reduce sugar and fat content. The work of this sub-group will primarily set targets on reformulation of food and drink. It will also make recommendations on addressing the reduction of portion sizes and on monitoring and validation procedures. One of the priority actions under step 3 of the national obesity policy and action plan was to establish a forum for meaningful engagement with industry on best practice initiatives towards a healthy food environment. With this in mind, a workshop between the reformulation sub-group and food sector stakeholders took place last September. This workshop provided an opportunity for detailed engagement with key food sector stakeholders on the challenges and opportunities of reformulation in the interest of promoting the health and well-being of the population. Another similar engagement has been scheduled for late February.

New healthy eating guidelines and food pyramid resources have been published and widely disseminated including to all primary and post-primary schools. New nutrition standards for schools, with an initial focus on school meal programmes, funded by the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection, have also been developed. These nutrition standards were published in September 2017. The nutrition standards were developed by the Department of Health with the assistance of Safefood and the Health Service Executive, in co-operation with the members of the school meals programme in the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection and the Department of Education and Skills. Work has commenced on developing healthy eating guidelines for the 1 to 5 year old age group, which will be a valuable resource for parents and carers in the future.

A voluntary code of practice for food and beverages promotion, marketing and sponsorship has also been developed involving representatives from the food industry, the advertising sector, statutory agencies, and various Government Departments. Work is under way to operationalise it. Pertinent to this is that the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland has now commenced a review of the effectiveness of its current children’s commercial communications code. The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland operates under the jurisdiction of the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment.

The code was introduced in 2005 to set down the rules applying to television broadcasters in respect of commercial communications that promote products, services or activities that are deemed to be of particular interest to children or which are broadcast during and between children’s programmes. Commercial communications include advertising, teleshopping, product placement and sponsorship. The code was updated in 2013 to introduce rules on foods which are high in fat, salt and sugar. The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland has advised the Department of Health that it is anticipated that the review of effectiveness of this code will be completed by July 2019. Once the review of the effectiveness of the code is completed, the authority will consider what revisions to the code are desirable and undertake a public consultation.

The HSE's Healthy Eating Active Living programme is supporting work in the education sector, as well as with parents, families and communities to deliver a more co-ordinated approach to prevention and early intervention in child obesity. This includes a five-year communications campaign called START, which is being delivered in collaboration with the HSE and safefood with a focus on supporting parents make healthy choices around food and activity. A first clinical lead for obesity, Professor Donal O'Shea, was appointed in 2017 to provide a model of care for children and adults and oversee its implementation. Health assessments, including weight checks, were introduced in the GP under-six contract. The HSE is also implementing a national breast-feeding action plan which is very important and relevant to this topic. Under the broader Healthy Ireland agenda, a number of other major initiatives support the obesity policy.

The obesity policy acknowledged the key role of physical activity in the prevention of obesity, while the broader benefits of a more active population are set out in the national physical activity plan. Being active is vital for healthy growth and development and has emotional, social and cognitive benefits for children and young people, as well as benefits for their physical and mental health and wellbeing. The national physical activity plan is one of the key developments arising from Healthy Ireland. It was approved by Government and launched in early 2016. The implementation of the plan is well under way in collaboration with the Department of Transport. Tourism and Sport and a range of other stakeholders, including the Department of Education and Skills. The Healthy Ireland 2018 communications campaign aimed to encourage people to make a small, healthy change under three themes, namely "healthy eating", "physical activity" and "mental well-being". We are working with a range of national and local partners to deliver a range of communications and citizen engagement activities. The Healthy Ireland fund, which was initiated in 2017, has supported a range of actions at both national and local level, many of which are targeted at children and which aim to support the obesity policy and the physical activity plan.

The Government agreed to establish a Healthy Ireland office in the Department of Health to build on the progress to date and further strengthen cross-Government collaboration on the implementation of Healthy Ireland. This development will bolster our collective efforts to implement key policies, including the obesity policy, aimed at improving the health and well-being of our population. I thank Deputy Alan Farrell and the joint committee for their great work on this issue.

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