Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank all Deputies for their contributions. I acknowledge the Minister of State's commitment that this report will go before the national obesity policy implementation oversight group for consideration. My first suggestion is that group's name should be shorted, as it is a bit long. Perhaps it could be abbreviated.

This is an epidemic and its scale of difficulty, presented to us as policymakers, is quite daunting. One of the biggest issues we have, given the manner in which our Departments are created, is that this is a multi-departmental matter, as it involves the Departments of Education and Skills, Children and Youth Affairs and Housing, Planning and Local Government. The fact this children and youth affairs report is being responded to by a Minister of State at the Department of Health exemplifies this. This needs to be co-ordinated and if that co-ordinator is to be the national obesity policy implementation oversight group, that is fine and I would be happy with that, particularly if it touches on the matters dealt with in the debate. Deputy Rabbitte's proposed legislation is an example. I welcome it and look forward to supporting it.

7 o’clock

In response to Deputy O'Loughlin's contribution on the ban on vending machines, which was given from the perspective of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Education and Skills, how simple it would be to issue a circular, yet that has not been done. I appreciate the ink is still wet on this report which was published in November. While I accept the financial consequences of that for schools, boards of management make decisions every day about what to spend their money on. Schools in disadvantaged communities which rely on such income can request additional sums from the Department of Education and Skills on the basis of disadvantage, irrespective of whether they are DEIS schools. It is important to highlight that.

One of the most sobering figures cited in this debate was that obesity costs this State approximately €1 billion per annum. That is not exclusively childhood obesity but it is a rather sobering figure. Think what we could do with €1 billion. It is an extraordinary sum of money.

Deputy Thomas Byrne's contribution was tremendous. It was terrific to hear someone who has gone through challenges and used it to his family's benefit. That type of personal story and contribution happened throughout our hearings. They are very important in the formulation of policy.

A societal change has occurred in recent decades. I grew up on the coast road in Malahide. My school was in Malahide village, just over 1 mile away. I used to walk to school from the age of approximately eight, when I was in first or second class. My seven year old son is in first class and I would not dream of letting him walk to school. I am not sure why society has changed, whether it is a matter of child protection, roads, safety, cars driving faster or what. Perhaps that is a conversation we should have.

We need to consider the infrastructure around the school. We are building a new primary school across the street from a secondary school, one of the biggest in the country, with a footpath that is probably no wider than the aisle in this Chamber. It has lampposts and signposts on it. There are 1,250 secondary school students who walk to it; it is beside a GAA club. The primary school, which will have 1,000 students, will be located there and the footpath is substandard. We are actively discouraging people from walking. Deputy Byrne and, I think, Deputy Mitchell mentioned this. The planning application for the primary school has an exclusion to stop the builders moving in and out of the site during school times but right beside it is another building site that has no exclusions. This sort of approach, with a nonsensical lack of connectivity or joined-up thinking, is unfortunately prevalent in all Departments. It is not intentional but it needs to be remedied to tackle this very important issue.

I accept Deputy Rabbitte's comment on weighing. I am sure she remembers our discussions on whether to put it into the report and whether what we did was an adequate solution. It is probably not but, as politicians, we know how important it is to collate data on all sorts of different metrics and while some, perhaps for political correctness, suggested that we should not do this, I disagree with them. There is a bit of the nanny state in that but I am fine with it because ultimately it is for the betterment of society.

The Minister of State acknowledged that the sugar tax has had a profound effect on the sales of sugar sweetened drinks. Most, if not all, of the producers of full sugar drinks have now reformulated their product and are selling a sugar-free version. Previously that was referred to as a "diet" version but now everything is "zero" or "free". That is positive but the key for schoolchildren is water faucets, even in the classroom if necessary, where they can go up, press a button and have a little drink of water and the parents can be content that there are no vending machines selling sugar sweetened drinks. There are no soft drinks permitted in the primary school that my two boys attend. They are allowed only water. That is a good thing. My child has been in the school for three years so this predates my time on the committee but it is a good initiative and should be rolled out to all schools.

Deputy O'Sullivan made a really valuable contribution, especially as she represents a community which is, broadly speaking, disadvantaged. I had the privilege of visiting one of her youth clubs at the invitation of Healthy Ireland. I was very happy with what I saw: young people from a disadvantaged community actively engaging in healthy eating and lifestyles, with physical activity, right bang in the city centre. Their biggest complaint was that they had insufficient green open space in an urban environment. The Minister of State represents a bit of the city and a bit of suburban Dublin and is very fortunate in having plenty of open space in his constituency. There is not that space in the inner city. It could and perhaps should be provided. I know Dublin City Council is doing great work on some of the Georgian squares on the northside, which I welcome but perhaps more needs to be done. I hope the council will take cognisance of the remarks made during the committee hearings and this evening.

General purpose rooms in primary and secondary schools are critical. So many schools do not have adequate facilities. There was an estimate from Deputy O'Loughlin's committee that €1 billion was required to invest in general purpose or physical education halls for schools around the country to either bring them up to standard or deliver them if they did not have them. Perhaps the €1 billion we spend on the maintenance of obese people could be used for such purposes.

I did not mention St. Angela's College. I thank Deputy Rabbitte for doing that. It is important to acknowledge the work of the college, the contribution its representatives made to our debate and the manner in which they made it, which was probably the most heartening aspect of it. They were thorough professionals, really nice people to deal with. They took a simple approach, talking about bringing a cooking ring into a classroom with a portable fridge to teach children about food. Deputy Byrne mentioned it too. That is an invaluable sort of endeavour that should be rolled out throughout the State.

Those in Wicklow who have done extraordinary voluntary work on the "no-fry zone" did a very good job of lobbying the committee members to make sure the no-fry zone was included in the report, and to roll it out. One of the councillors in my local council in Skerries, Tom O'Leary, tabled a motion with a Green Party representative to ensure that the no-fry zone was introduced into Fingal. It is not quite there yet but these are simple things that can be implemented. Definition is critical but if a fast food outlet is not permitted by statute to open within 300 m or 400 m of a school, it will not apply for planning permission and local authority members and the general public will not be up in arms when the applications are made.

I reiterate my thanks to the committee members and all who made contributions to this report, including the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, for his response to it.

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