Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This is World Autism Awareness Week. Life can be challenging for both the parents of children with autism and the children themselves, and we need to provide them with support and funding. That is crucial going forward.

Sugar is our new enemy. The dusty white stuff is the cause of huge problems in our society, and I am glad we are about to start to tax high sugar items. We all need some sugar, certainly, and there are jobs in the industry, but we need to curb the increase of high sugar products in our children's diets. While I welcome the sugar tax, which is coming in on 6 April, just taxing the high sugar products is not enough. It will make them more expensive, but it will not tackle their allure. Young children want this product every day. I have a sweet tooth myself. Sugar can be addictive. Recently a parliamentary reply outlined that there is an anticipated revenue from this tax of around €30 million in 2018 and €40 million annually from 2019. The tax will add approximately ten cents to the price of standard cans of fizzy drinks and we need to worked harder on it. It is not enough to simply increase the prices of these cans. Manufacturers will find other ways around it.

We have to control how this product is treated by the consumer. According to a study published byThe Lancet, Ireland is set to become the most obese country in Europe, alongside the UK, within a decade and that Irish men already have the highest body mass index in Europe, with Irish women in third place. Almost a third of Irish children are overweight, which is a ten-fold increase in the rate of obesity for Irish boys between 1975 and 2016, and a nine-fold increase among Irish girls, according to this study. These figures do not leave a sweet taste in the mouth. In fact, they are nasty. It is time for smart food training. We need to use the boost in revenue from this new sugar tax in education. We need to inform and arm the modern consumer with knowledge about what we are eating and drinking.

In our Fianna Fáil manifesto we sought to invest in sports infrastructure as well as promoting physical activity. I request that the Minister comes into this House to discuss the issue. The Government will receive this massive amount of money annually. It is vital that our young people receive the benefits, and I believe that education and physical training is the way forward.