Catherine Noone (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I raise an issue touched on by Senator Aideen Hayden. A study was published this week which showed that the risk of obesity doubled for those living in low income households, which is no big surprise. The study of childhood obesity discovered that socioeconomic factors impacted significantly on a child's chances of becoming obese, with parents' social class, education and whether they drank or smoked all having a major impact. This should come as no surprise as the environment often plays a role in a great many aspects of a child's life. In this instance, the impact is alarming in that the risk of obesity is actually doubled. While I agree entirely with Senator Aideen Hayden that we need to address the fact that many adults are obese, it starts with children. In fact, mothers being obese is a vitally important factor. The study also revealed that children who were obese had an 82% chance of remaining so into adulthood compared to just 15% of children of normal weight. One interesting finding was that if a mother was obese, her child was 5.5 times more likely to be obese. This is of concern and may also go some way towards explaining why those in lower income households are more susceptible. Dietary education can play an enormous role in highlighting how people can feed themselves healthily and inexpensively by cooking from scratch. Such education should be provided for parents also in schools. Obesity is a ticking time bomb for the nation, especially in the context of the cost to the health service which is already struggling. One in four children is now classified as being overweight or obese. I apologise for raising this issue again, but I would be very grateful if we could engage in public consultation or a debate on it in the very near future.