Déirdre de Búrca (Green Party)

I welcome the Minister of State and the opportunity to discuss health promotion priorities. Health promotion is a central interest of the Minister of State's portfolio. What is most important in setting priorities in this area is the basic model of health care that underpins our health care system. Obviously, health promotion is about prevention and early intervention. It is about trying to promote health so people can avoid contracting disease or illness, and the expensive high technology interventions that are necessary at that stage to cure or rehabilitate them.

The Green Party's health policy has always put great emphasis on self-management and self-care, with the onus on the individual to manage his or her health in a responsible and effective way. To do that, the individual must have as much information and awareness as possible, particularly in today's society where lifestyle-related diseases occur more frequently. These are conditions such as obesity, diabetes and diet-related illnesses and ill health. There are also diseases that can arise due to lack of exercise, over-indulgence in drugs or alcohol and, as Senator Prendergast mentioned, sexual behaviour. These lifestyle-related issues can have a profound impact on an individual's health over the long term. Problems tend to present themselves when the individual is middle-aged or older. The cumulative effect of a lifetime of bad diet and poor lifestyle can culminate in serious health problems which then present in our acute hospitals and so forth and require all kinds of expensive interventions.

One of the priorities for health promotion is the development and implementation nationwide of an effective primary health care system that is accessible and affordable, something the Government has commenced and to which it is committed. This model involves the establishment of primary health care centres that are staffed by multidisciplinary teams. They would include professionals such as dieticians, occupational therapists, physiotherapists and so forth to deal with the wide range of lifestyle related health issues with which people can present. If our primary health care system is to be successful, it must be about early intervention on these matters and trying to prevent people reaching the point where their conditions become so chronic they must present to the acute care sector of the health care system.

While the primary health care system is important and the Government must obviously continue its efforts to roll out primary health care centres throughout the country, another part of the health sector has been overlooked and has been almost invisible in terms of the contribution it makes to health promotion. It comprises the community pharmacies and the health food sector. As the community pharmacists emphasised to public representatives during the pharmacists' dispute over the last year or so, the community pharmacists provide an informal service by providing information, advice, guidance and so forth to people on the management of their health. Again, this puts the onus on individuals to take responsibility for their health and to have an awareness of the correct information about their health condition.

The Green Party has always taken a strong interest in the health food sector. I thank the Minister of State for recently agreeing to meet representatives from the Irish Association of Health Stores who wished to discuss Ireland's position with regard to the transposition of the EU food supplements directive and the setting of maximum permitted limits for certain vitamins and minerals. The Minister of State's attitude was extremely open and she gave the representatives a fair hearing. Again, they made the point to the Minister of State that they are an important source of information and advice for people on managing their health. Obviously, they also stressed the role that the careful and responsible use of food supplements can play in managing one's health.

I hope the Department of Health and Children will find a way to include the community pharmacists and the health food sector in the health promotion strategy that will be developed. They currently play an extremely important role and, in co-operation with the Government, could play an even better role. Perhaps certain regulations might have to be introduced or tighter conditions might have to be imposed on the type of services they are currently providing informally and in an unregulated manner, but they provide an important service, which potentially could be even more important, to the public. I hope the Minister of State will take this into consideration in formulating the health promotion strategy.