Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I also commend the Leader on organising the debate last night in the House on Seanad reform. It was an excellent debate and one in which so many people wanted to participate resulting in us having to extend the time by 15 or 20 minutes. What came out of the debate was a desire to look into and scrutinise in more detail the legislation that Dr. Manning, Mr. Joe O'Toole, Mr. Pat Magner and their committee are preparing and which they announced yesterday they were publishing. This is the detailed legislation to give effect to the recommendations of their working group on Seanad reform. I would very much like to have the opportunity in early course to debate the Bill, once we have all seen a copy of it. I am sure the Leader will facilitate that further debate. The big concern we all had, as Senator Cummins put it so eloquently, was that we want this to be the last report on Seanad reform. We want to see its recommendations acted upon and given effect. I would therefore like us to have that debate in the coming weeks.

I also welcome the debate tonight on the spring economic statement. That sort of openended debate is important.

I want to ask the Leader for a debate on the report that has come out today on the projections for obesity levels in Ireland. Quite a number of colleagues have spoken eloquently on this issue for some time now, but this report sets out starkly the projected rise in obesity levels in Ireland. There are some very troubling figures, particularly when we compare Irish projections to the projections of other European countries. The Netherlands is a leader in terms of reducing levels of obesity among current generations and is projected to reduce them in the future. There are some very clear issues on which focus is required at a legislative and policy making level. These include exercise levels, physical education for school children and teenagers, access to junk food and easy access to food with high levels of sugar, fats and salt. We have already done good work in the Seanad, in the public consultation committee, on lifestyle factors and their effect on cancer prevention. We should also have a debate in early course on this particular report and on what can be done to tackle obesity and, in particular, to prevent this dreadful rise that is projected to happen among our children.

I ask the Leader for another debate on commemorations in the coming months. We have had some debates on this already but it would be useful to have another debate, perhaps in the early part of the autumn, as we see the Government's programme for commemorations for 2016 taking shape. I am minded to ask for the debate in light of yesterday's moving and poignant ecumenical service in memory of the children killed during the Rising. It seems no one is quite sure how many children were killed during the week of the Easter Rising in 1916 but, thanks to the work of Joe Duffy and others, we know that it was approximately 40 children. These children had been largely written out of history. No photographs remain of them. It was moving to see the remembrance service for them yesterday, which the President and Sabina Higgins both attended. I would like us to have a debate on commemorations which takes into account the tragedies of those who were killed, particularly the children, but also the social and economic context for the Rising as well as the military endeavours during it.