Denise Mitchell (Dublin Bay North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I commend the committee on its report on tackling childhood obesity, in respect of which it did a great deal of work. I also thank the various groups and organisations that came before the committee. The publication of the report is a major step forward in addressing an issue that is a ticking time bomb in terms of public health. Right now, one in four children is overweight or obese. What is even more worrying is that the majority of parents of overweight children do not particularly recognise their child is overweight. We are seeing the normalisation of the issue. Only one in five children in the State gets the recommended 60 minutes of physical exercise per day. The long-term effects of this are devastating for the children who, as they get older, may end up with type 2 diabetes, heart issues and other long-term conditions. This puts a massive strain on our healthcare system.

Prevention is better than cure. The recommendations of the report offer some very simple ways to ensure that children are educated about their diets and that advertising targeted at children by junk food companies is restricted. We also need to look at where fast-food outlets are located and ways in which we can encourage healthy eating and physical activity. While physical activity is important, one cannot outrun a bad diet. We are seeing the constant push of junk food on our children via broadcast media, visual media and, in particular, social media. This is why I want to press home the importance of recommendations Nos. 14 to 18, inclusive.

Prior to Christmas, I attended a talk hosted by the Irish Heart Foundation at which Dan Parker, a former top advertising executive from Britain who worked with McDonald's and Coca-Cola, spoke about the cynical tactics used by junk food companies to target products at our children. To be honest, it was an eye-opener. What I took away from it was that the only way to tackle the constant pushing of junk food and unhealthy drinks on our children is through legislation. Voluntary codes simply do not work. In fact, the existing voluntary codes will be a year old next week and we still have no monitoring body in place or guidance developed. This shows that we need statutory regulation.

Among the other recommendations the issue of vending machines in schools stood out. It is bizarre that home economics students are taught about healthy eating but as soon as they walk out of the classroom and go down the corridor they come to a vending machine selling junk food. I know some schools state they rely on the money generated by these machines but that is wrong. No school should have to rely on the takings of a vending machine. This is something we need to look at.

On the issue of takeaways deliberately locating beside schools we have seen no-fry zone campaigns, and there was a successful one in Wicklow. It is a good initiative. The problem is we do not have clarification on what is junk food and we need this clarification as a matter of importance.

This is a great report. If it is implemented properly it will go a long way towards tackling the crisis of childhood obesity. I hope it does not end up on a shelf gathering dust.

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