Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail)

I welcome yesterday's proposal by the EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Mariann Fischer Boel, to launch a scheme, valued at €90 million, to address childhood obesity by making fruit and vegetables available to schoolchildren across member states. The proposal, which must be agreed by the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament, is very welcome. The EU Commission is adopting the model rolled out in more than 100 Irish schools since 2005 by Bord Bia and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.

It is planned, in the programme for Government, to roll it out to approximately 3,000 further primary schools. This is an excellent initiative because a problem exists in Ireland and other EU member states in respect of childhood obesity. It can be targeted specifically in a number of ways, of which this initiative is one. Second, the role of sport within the primary school curriculum must be considered. I also pay tribute to the National Heart Alliance's document on the children's food campaign. Both the Irish Heart Foundation and the National Heart Alliance are calling for a restriction on television advertising of unhealthy foods before the 9 p.m. watershed and this proposal should be supported by the Government. I call on the Leader to facilitate a debate after the summer recess on the issue of childhood and adolescent obesity and how it can be dealt with through the school curriculum and the efforts of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, as well as the health promotion unit and children's office within the Department of Health and Children. At least three Departments have some responsibility in this regard and could work together. This matter should be debated in this House and I call on the Leader to facilitate such a debate when Members resume in October.