Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael)

The matter I have tabled refers to school chairs. While this might seem trivial, I have some good news in that it will not cost a penny but will save many people's backs from future pain. Is the Department of Health and Children aware of the long-term damage to children's backs and overall posture caused by backward-sloping school chairs that are used as standard practice in all Irish schools today? A number of years ago, I wrote a book entitled Switching On For Learning, one of the chapters of which concerned good posture, the Alexander technique and how backward-sloping school chairs are affecting children's posture. As the Minister of State knows, children spend years of their lives sitting on such chairs.

One can do a test to assess a chair. If a pen is put on a chair and it rolls backward, it is a poor chair. If the pen sits still, the chair is fine.

According to a recent report by the National Back Pain Association in the UK, backward-sloping school chairs are a primary cause of back problems in later life. According to CureResearch, 87,563 people in Ireland suffer from back pain. A vast amount is being spent on treatment, loss in productivity, absenteeism and sick pay. We are not proposing to change all the school furniture but to change the legislation to make all school chairs flat in future. This will cost the Government nothing because I propose that as school chairs wear out, they would be replaced with those that are flat and good for the back. This will save billions of euro in health care costs and will produce a healthier population with better posture in the future. It is important to state that this measure is cost neutral. It will cost nothing because I suggest it should be introduced over time.

The Minister of State should listen to the following for a ludicrous situation. Mr. Richard Brennan, who helps people with posture problems through the Alexander technique, was told by the Department of Education and Science in Tullamore in 2002 that legislation stated that all schools chairs must slope backwards by at least 4° as it is a safety factor when the chairs are being stacked. Why should the stacking of school chairs be more important than the damage to young people's backs?

To outline some facts in this regard, chronic back pain is costing each sufferer in Ireland €6,000 to €10,000 a year when loss of earnings, hospital fees and bills for other medical treatments and supports are added up. The calculations were part of a two-year study by the Centre for Pain Research at NUI Galway, which found one in three adults contacted through general practitioner surgeries suffered chronic pain and had been in pain for an average of seven and a half years. Back pain was the most common cause in people up to age 65, in other words, younger people. People with higher levels of pain had on average four hospital stays, eight outpatient appointments and nine GP visits per year, and also required home help, specialist equipment and other supports later in life, which, combined with loss of work, put the cost of their condition at approximately €9,564 per person per year. That is the position. I request that the Minister of State, Deputy Haughey, inform the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills and the Minister for Health and Children of the fact that we could prevent much of the damage done to young people's backs by replacing sloping school chairs with flat backed chairs.