Hildegarde Naughton (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

When will the Forestry Bill be coming before the Seanad? It is very important legislation which has huge potential for the development of rural Ireland, in particular our indigenous industries, which form the backbone of our economy.
I refer to The Irish Timesreport that the Euro Diabetes Index 2014 ranks Ireland 20th out of 30th countries, ahead only of countries in eastern and southern Europe. In other words, we have the worst diabetes care in western European. Despite shadowing the UK in many health indices, in this survey, Ireland is far behind the UK in this particular health matter. The director of the index, Dr. Beatriz Cebolla, notes that we have a huge public health problem in that we, as a population, are obese and sedentary. She notes that we have very good services in terms of the supply of equipment for monitoring and treating diabetes and in educational matters but no reliable data on the health complications for such patients, such as blood sugar levels and eye and foot conditions. She makes a number of recommendations, including addressing obesity, exercise and nutrition in schools, which I consider an excellent idea. Will the Leader request the new Minister for Education and Skills rather than the Minister for Health to come to the House to discuss the inclusion of such matters on the curriculum?