Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is always a pleasure to meet associates of Senator Lawless.

The discussion on the report on childhood obesity is welcome. I congratulate Senator Noone for raising this issue consistently and all of the members of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly who in bringing their perspectives have contributed to the development of the report.

Many of the health impacts of obesity have already been covered and discussed at length so I will pick out three or four areas from the report that I believe can provide practical solutions, such as the collective learning, the very strong recommendation and how we might look at tackling them in Ireland.

An issue that has been touched on by others is the question of health equality and the fact that DEIS schools have a higher rate of childhood obesity. In producing solutions to deal with childhood obesity, we need to recognise issues around health inequality. A really positive initiative that was in place before it was terminated three or four years ago was Healthy Food for All. This initiative was sponsored by the then Department of Social Protection, working with the Department of Education and Skills. It produced a number of very strong and useful reports, looking specifically not only at the issue of obesity but of nutrition and equality around food and health. They produced a Good Practice Guide for School Food in 2009, the Good Practice Guide for Community Food Initiatives in 2011 and a Good Practice Guide for Breakfast Clubs in 2012.

When I worked with another organisation I had the chance to meet frequently with Healthy Food For All and witnessed how effective it was in tackling the underlying issues of equality and bringing them to the fore.It brought issues to the table which Departments and others could then act on. I know that we now have a nutrition guide and a set of nutrition standards in respect of schools but something like Healthy Food for All was a way of tagging issues early on. An issue, for example, which is not widespread in Ireland but which is becoming more evident here and which is huge in the United States is that of food deserts. These are areas where it is increasingly hard for people to readily access good, nutritional food. In Ireland, now that we are moving towards a position where supermarkets to which one has to drive are the main source of food, with fewer local shops, we are beginning to see nascent food deserts here. Healthy Food for All was a very positive initiative which should be looked at again in this new frame, and reconsidered in the context of costing very little but producing very strong outcomes.

The Vincentian Partnership for Social Justice has produced excellent research on the minimum essential standards of living in which it has costed, item by item, the things that people in different households and different family structures buy week after week, as part of its annual pre-budget submission. There might be really interesting learning there in terms of the decisions that people are making and sometimes have to make around their daily and weekly household food and nutrition.

I also wish to refer to the issue of planning in the context of our schools. It is very important that we have local planning laws that take into consideration issues like the location of fast food outlets, advertising billboards and so on. There are differences of opinion, vis-à-visthe alcohol Bill, on the importance or effect of advertising near schools but we know that advertising has an impact. All of the research shows that it creates a climate and a desire, about which I have concerns. As legislators we have a mix of tools available to us but we need to be willing to use all of them. A sugar tax is a very positive step. The Government's proposal is very clear and fair and it is great to see that moving forward in Ireland because it is needed. There will be pressure around it, as international experience has shown, but we need to be very strong in terms of implementing the tax. The current idea with regard to communications is to have a code of practice but if that code does not deliver results we must be ready to follow up with harder measures, clear directives and legislation. Codes of practice are all very well but they must have a limited period of testing before we move to something firmer. That message must come across clearly. We need to create a counter incentive to the bottom line.

Breastfeeding was just mentioned and that is an area where, on a practical level, we need to provide more support. It is not enough to just promote breastfeeding. We also need to provide real supports for women by way of lactation consultants and others who can make the choice to breastfeed easier. Many women have difficulties with breastfeeding and we need to put practical supports in place.

The next issue, about which I am very passionate, is cycling. I would have to slightly disagree with Senator Noone on this. I believe that cycling is good for one and does make a difference.