Seanad debates

Wednesday, 26 February 2014

11:10 am

Photo of Michael MullinsMichael Mullins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I saw some figures published in the past few days which showed obesity is 9% lower in schools that have a targeted health programme. A study was carried out by Trinity College on targeted health programmes operating in Tallaght. It showed that 16% of children in schools taking part in a healthy schools programme were obese compared to 25% in comparable control group schools. That is a difference of nine percentage points in the level of obesity. A further 10% of children in the intervention schools were overweight, compared to 16% in other schools. It is quite obvious that in schools that are making an effort to tackle obesity, the results are very positive. The Minister of State with responsibility for primary health care, Deputy Alex White, said the findings were very positive and should be considered by Government. Could we have a debate with the Minister of State, Deputy Alex White, or the Minister for Education and Skills on how we can ensure all primary and secondary schools take the issue of obesity seriously and on measures we can put in place in schools to tackle this problem, which is causing so many health issues and problems for young people and is adding huge costs to the overall health bill?

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