Emer Currie (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Boyhan for referencing the Private Members' motion on British Government proposals on legacy issues, which we will debate later. I know he is very invested in discussing and debating legacy issues. I thank all those who will, hopefully, take part in that debate this evening.

Today, I want to raise the issue of obesity. We saw in the media the worrying projection that 90% of people in this country will be overweight or obese by 2030. The World Health Organization predicted that Ireland is on course to become the country with the highest obesity rate in Europe, and that was pre-pandemic. During my time as a stay-at-home mum I trained as a nutrition and lifestyle coach, which training has gone completely out the window since I got involved in politics. If you want a good lifestyle politics is very challenging. On a serious note, we need a debate on lifestyle and supportive interventions to help people make better decisions. Earlier this week, Professor Donal O'Shea, HSE clinical lead for obesity, expressed the view in the newspapers that it is not as simple as eating less and exercising more and that obesity is a complex, chronic disease and especially affects people with a genetic disposition towards it.

The budget is welcome in terms of the extension of the hot school meals to 81 DEIS schools, or a further 16,000 children, bringing the total number of children now benefitting from hot school meals to 55,650. I have seen this in practice. It is fantastic. Nutritious meals such as meatballs and pasta are being delivered to children at their desks. The budget also provides a €10 increase in the weekly threshold for the working family payment. There are many pressures on families. It would be good to have a discussion around issues such as food labelling and what we can do sooner rather than later. If we cannot move because of EU legislation, there might be things that we can do here, such as putting teaspoons of sugar in certain foods on the price points such that you do not have to pick up the pack. We need to talk about cooking and how we are losing that skill. It is time we had a debate on our obesity policy and action plan.