Pauline O'Reilly (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Cassells for facilitating me. I thought there may have been someone else who might want to speak about this. Some Senators have been incredibly vocal when I have pointed out that I agreed with the recommendations of the report of the Oireachtas joint committee that we needed to ban online advertising of formula milk in this country. My feelings on this are very much on the record as are those of other Senators who disagree with me on this point. I am sure they will make their feelings known. Let us make no mistake. This is big business. That is what this is about. Online advertising and any advertising of formula milk is not about alerting people and mothers to the possibility they could formula feed. We all know this. It is about looking at a vulnerable time in someone's life and asking how to make money out of it. This is what I believe the advertising of this milk is about.

There have been workarounds when it comes to the WHO code. Follow-on milk is one of these. Follow-on milk is not necessary but because we have a code that includes infant milk follow-on milk is used as a way to bypass it and allow the type of advertising that will promote formula milk in general. Let us think about this. Nobody advertises for something unless they think they will get a return on the investment. This is why people put money behind advertising. Those who breastfeed cannot put any money into advertising because it is something we do naturally and we make no money from. This is why we are competing against something in this country. Public health is competing against something that is making money. It needs to be heavily regulated. I am supportive of the amendments and I thank the Minister and the officials for their engagement on this issue. When we have a Bill such as this, which includes sugar and salt, it makes sense that we also include things that have been shown by the WHO not to improve public health in general.

There are instances where people choose to use formula milk feed and there are instances where people have to. These instances would still be facilitated. We are not speaking about stopping the sale of these goods. We are speaking about people at 3 a.m. desperately looking for a solution to mastitis or a child that will not sleep. They go online to search for ways to get the child to sleep. They should not be prompted with advertisements for the purchase of a product that will make somebody else money. The formula milk industry is worth €60 billion a year. Not only does it make money but it leads to worse health outcomes. We all know this and I can point to 1 million pieces of research but I will not do so. In Ireland, it is worth €1 billion year. This is very much behind why we allow the promotion of these products to go ahead.

There are clear instances where the code has been breached in this country. I have gone into supermarkets and had to point out the code is being breached because they are not allowed to reduce the price of infant milk formula. It is still being decreased. This is why I am supportive of these amendments or something that would show it is an important issue. Some of the wording in the amendments needs to be changed and this is probably acknowledged. We look at sugar and salt and their promotion to children. When we look at formula milk it is the promotion to their parents that has worse health outcomes for them.

This is about choice. We know this type of advertising has not provided the same type of choice for those who want support with breast milk, those who want support with feeding their infants or to have proper health advice from doctors on which is best substitute for them. This is where I see it and not in advertising that makes a profit for people.