Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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Question 111: To ask the Minister for Education and Science her response to calls from the National Heart Alliance for schools to play a crucial role in terms of promoting a healthy diet and adequate physical exercise for children; if she will reintroduce the sports equipment grant and ban the sale of sugary fatty energy-dense food from schools. [33077/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Our schools promote, support and encourage healthy eating and physical exercise in a range of ways. Physical education is part of the curriculum at primary and at post-primary level and plays a key role not just in giving students an opportunity to exercise during the school day but also in encouraging a positive attitude towards physical activity which students will, hopefully, carry with them into adult life.

With regard to educating students about making good food choices, a curriculum in social, personal and health education is mandatory for all primary students and its implementation is being assisted by a full-time support service. Health and well-being with food and nutrition are two areas dealt with under the "taking care of my body" unit of that curriculum. The objective is that by fifth and sixth class, pupils should be enabled to realise that they, as individuals, have some responsibility for adopting a healthy balanced diet and for taking regular and appropriate exercise.

All second level schools have been required to provide SPHE as part of the junior cycle curriculum since September 2003. The aims of this programme include preparing students for responsible decision making and promoting their physical, mental and emotional health and well-being.

Quite apart from curricular provision, schools can implement measures to encourage physical activity during school breaks and schools already play a major role in promoting the involvement of students in sporting activities in the wider community. Sports organisations such as the Gaelic Athletic Association, Basketball Ireland, the Football Association of Ireland provide extensive opportunities for schools to participate in sport.

Together, the above initiatives ensure that children not only get opportunities to exercise at school but also learn about balanced nutrition and making good food choices. I believe that schools are playing their part in terms of promoting a healthy diet and adequate physical exercise for children. However, it is important to remember that children spend just 20% of their waking hours at school so schools can only do so much with regard to promoting exercise and healthy eating and the main role must rest with parents.

Regarding sports equipment grants, my Department has provided in excess of €5.5 million in grant aid to primary schools specifically for this purpose, to enable them to provide coaching or mentoring in connection with physical education or to purchase resource materials associated with the provision of physical education. Materials and equipment purchased by schools in previous years will generally be available to them for subsequent years. The question of a further grant will be kept under review as part of the normal Estimates process in the coming years. Schools can also use their general capitation funding to support the implementation of curricula, including physical education. Since 1997 the standard rate of capitation grant has been increased from £45 or €57.14 per pupil to €133.58 in the current year, an increase of almost 134% in the period.

The position on the question of banning the sale of certain foods in schools is that schools are privately owned, privately managed institutions which, although funded by the State, enjoy a large degree of autonomy. It is, therefore, primarily a matter for the boards of management of individual schools to devise policies on the types of food that are available on the school premises and such policies should be driven by the needs and the welfare of the students. I know that many schools have developed healthy eating policies in co-operation with their parents' associations and I would encourage others to do so.

Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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I thank the Minister for her reply but I ask her to take account of what needs to be done as well as what is being done. The National Heart Alliance has called on the Department of Education and Science to take a lead role in tackling childhood obesity. The alliance should be pushing an open door in approaching the Minister with suggestions in this area, given that one in five children are obese in Ireland, while the EU average is one in six. In this context, we are closer to Boston than Berlin.

I ask the Minister to take account of the decrease in physical exercise which is reported among children from seven to 18 years. Only 49% of such children are exercising four or more times a week, down from 54%. These figures represent an average and girls are generally much worse than boys in this regard. In that context, I ask the Minister to make the case more strongly, during the Estimates process, that the physical education equipment grant scheme be reinstated and given additional resources to try to reverse the trend of fewer children taking physical exercise.

I appreciate that schools are private institutions but the Department has a major influence in the running of schools. The Minister must take account of the need for a healthy food policy in all schools and for a code of practice, at both primary and secondary level, on vending machines. I understand there is a voluntary code on vending machines at primary level, but the secondary level sector also needs guidance and influence from the Department on this matter.

I ask the Minister to be open to meeting the National Heart Alliance to discuss further practical measures, from a health and medical point of view, that may need to be taken.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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There are two significant ways of dealing with this issue, one of which is the provision of facilities. In all major extensions and new school buildings, particularly at second level, state-of-the-art gymnasia are being installed, including, for example, a balcony area with fitness equipment, which seems to be particularly attractive to teenage girls. Even though this adds substantially to the cost of physical education halls, I have decided that we should continue with this type of development as it is a way of keeping girls involved and fit.

The second way to deal with this issue is through the summer works programme. Last year, my Department provided over €2.3 million for outdoor play areas for schools. This enabled them to resurface basketball courts and so on. This is an attempt to improve the facilities in schools throughout the country. The general purpose room in schools can also be used for physical education.

A significant number of schools are now adopting a healthy eating policy and I recommend that more do so. Obviously, this is something that must be done in conjunction with parents. We cannot just ban junk food in schools and have children arriving to school with nothing. A healthy food policy must be implemented with parents' associations, which may be guided by the schools as to what is appropriate for children.

The SPHE programme, which includes information on nutrition, also includes a media awareness unit, which makes children realise how much advertising is targeted at them. It encourages children to be objective with regard to advertising. From the point of view of education, I am anxious to facilitate any initiatives that would improve the health of children. However, the parents who are looking for more time for physical education in schools are the ones who drive their children to school, collect them from school, bring them home, put them in front of a video and then give them a Gameboy for the rest of the night. A balance must be brought back into this discussion.

Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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I am sure the Minister is not casting aspersions on the Minister for Transport over the lack of safe routes to school, though that is a matter to be resolved between Cabinet colleagues. During my time as a teacher, and perhaps during the Minister's time also, milk was provided in schools. There is a need to liaise with other Departments to provide healthier foods at schools in an attempt to reverse the habit children have acquired, perhaps through parental irresponsibility, of eating sugary energy-dense foods. The Departments of Education and Science and Agriculture and Food have a role to play in this regard.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I recently launched, with the Minister for Agriculture and Food, Deputy Coughlan, a fruit and vegetable initiative in a primary school in Brunswick Street. The aim of the initiative is to encourage young people to eat more fruit in the course of their day. There is much interdepartmental co-operation in this area.

Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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That is a good start.