Feargal Quinn (Independent)

I was so impressed to hear yesterday that life expectancy in Ireland is 80 years for children born today that I raised the matter on the Order of Business. Life expectancy in other parts of the world, for example, in southern Africa and Niger, is only 50 years. We have a much longer life expectancy. We are not top of the world - the Japanese are some years ahead of us - but we are nearly there.

I mention this because I believe urban planning should promote an active lifestyle so that we can give ourselves a healthy life in the future. This Bill calls for local authorities to show how their future planning strategy aligns to national and regional policy and how the provision of land for residential development aligns with population projections. That is where I am coming from.

As obesity levels increase in Ireland we must pay more attention to how our planning strategy impacts on the amount of physical activity in which we engage. We have not done enough in this regard or given enough attention to it. There have been numerous studies into this area but one report in 2007 by the World Health Organisation highlighted evidence of the link between physical activity and health and the need to create opportunities for active living in urban environments. I do not see much sign of that in the Bill in which the subject is only just mentioned.

There are some extraordinary statistics. Physical inactivity causes an estimated 600,000 deaths per year in Europe and leads to a loss of 5.3 million years of healthy life expectancy per year due to premature mortality and disability. The WHO study argues that several characteristics of the residential environment such as access to physical activity facilities, land use mix, active transport opportunities and perceived safety in the neighbourhood, have an impact on people's physical activity levels and, therefore, on their life expectancy. Increasing obesity rates are a serious public health concern not only in this country but around the world, especially in the western world. Lack of physical activity is a major determinant of the modern disease of obesity. Although the importance of where a person lives has been recognised to be linked to how much of an active lifestyle he or she leads, there is still a lack of integration when it comes to urban planning. This is a vital subject and one that must be promoted in any new planning strategy. This Bill, which is aimed at a wide area, including the rezoning of land for commercial development, should take other factors into account. It does not take sufficient account of healthy lifestyle.

We must ensure more access to sports facilities close to homes. This is fundamental to promoting activity, especially but not only in children, while public facilities must be within walking distance for older people. We have all visited towns and areas where it is very attractive to go out and walk or participate in sports. We have seen others where such spaces have not been allocated. We must stress the importance of developing physical and social environments which are conducive to physical activity and healthy exercise. I would like to hear the Minister's views on this and to see if it is possible to include these measures in the legislation. If not, perhaps they could be included elsewhere.

Physical activity, its link to diseases and its interaction with urban planning are not addressed nearly enough in the Bill. I hope to table an amendment or introduce a separate Bill so that specifics are set out when a town is planned. For instance, there should be a specific amount of land dedicated to healthy living. That may be vague but healthy living is a good enough term. Incentives should be provided for developing vacant and run-down areas into green and-or open spaces. We must ensure our future planning strategy is based on quality of life. It must allow access to work, school and shopping but also encourage people to exercise and participate in sport and provide facilities to do so. Exercise has been proven in the past to be beneficial in countering health problems. In the future, we could solve many health problems which we had in the past and relieve some of the stress on our health service in the future. This would be a win-win situation. We can win by ensuring we have healthier living and, therefore, a less costly health service. I believe this has not been taken into account. I would like to see it taken into account, either in this Bill or in similar legislation.