Mary White (Fianna Fail)

I was delighted to hear Senator Eamonn Coghlan speak. He is one of our most elite athletes and I remember every battle he was in. I was working in the National Building Agency at the time with the Senator's cousin, Pamela Conroy.

Two weeks ago, at the annual conference of the Faculty of Sports and Exercise Medicine of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Professor Dónal O'Shea of UCD spoke about the role of sport and exercise in dealing with the obesity epidemic in Ireland. A Canadian sports physician at the same conference, Professor Karim Khan, told his listeners that exercise is medicine. I ask our doctors, as well as prescribing drugs and medication for blood pressure, diabetes, Alzheimer's disease and cancers, to give a similar prescription for fitness. It has been proven that physical fitness is critical for keeping those diseases at bay. I ask the Minister of State for support in this regard. A general practitioner should not simply tell a patient to keep fit. An actual fitness prescription should be given. Doctors should push the mantra that exercise is medicine. Exercise is a magic drug, and it is free.