Catherine Noone (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I join with Senator Mullins in highlighting Safer Internet Day. Vigilance is definitely called for. With the amount of trolls and the number of unidentified people online who are willing to lash out abuse willy-nilly, this is something we need to watch. It was very disturbing to discover recently that bullying is now more common online than it is in person or in schools. It is important to raise awareness on this very pertinent issue.

I wish to raise another issue briefly, childhood obesity. I was shocked by new research conducted in the US by the centres for disease control and prevention, revealing that 40% of children born in the years 2000 to 2011 would develop Type 2 diabetes in their lifetime. That figure is alarming. It is alarming that Ireland could be on course for such an epidemic with one in four Irish children being classified as overweight or obese. Studies have shown the same parts of the brain light up with alcohol as with sugary drinks. Parents would not allow their children to smoke a cigarette or drink a glass of wine. It is imperative that society adopt the same attitude to daily consumption of sugary drinks. The obesity crisis in Ireland is now affecting children as young as three and four years. According to a growing up in Ireland study-----