Catherine Noone (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Healthy Ireland survey conducted by the Department of Health was released yesterday. More than 7,000 households were included in the survey. It shows there has been somewhat of a plateau when it comes to obesity and that 60% of people are still overweight. It found that four in ten men do not get enough exercise. The most commonly desired lifestyle change is that people wish to be more active. In most jobs, it is usual for people to spend more than five hours a day sitting at a desk. Less than one in five people now smoke each day, which is most welcome. It shows that the strategy in the past ten years has worked.

Advertising campaigns such as the very sad one featuring Gerry Collins, the man who has since died, have been very effective. We clearly need to do something when it comes to health, in particular obesity, being overweight and unhealthy lifestyles. It would make a big difference if we had a similar campaign targeting those issues.

We have made considerable headway with tobacco and smoking, which is very much to be welcomed. It was brought to my attention recently that some cigarette companies have started selling 28-packs of cigarettes. That is a blatant attempt by cigarette manufacturers to get people who smoke to smoke more. Everybody knows that smokers tend to talk about how many packets of cigarettes they smoke per day or week. Larger packets pose a risk. They are not a good idea and could result in those who smoke smoking up to 30% or 40% more. We are moving in the right direction when it comes to obesity but an advertising campaign of the sort we have seen in the realm of smoking would be good.