James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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Question 292: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the progress made in relation to the Programme for Government commitment to publish a national strategy for tackling obesity; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [26812/08]

Mary Wallace (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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The Health Service Executive has established a Working Group to implement the recommendations of the Report of the National Taskforce on Obesity, for which it has the lead responsibility. A sum of €3 million was allocated for this purpose in 2006. This is in addition to the annual spend of €25 million on health promotion activities, €5 million of which is utilised in anti-obesity initiatives.

My Department and the HSE have been introducing actions and policies which will help to stem the rise in obesity rates.

The National Nutrition Policy, which will be completed later this year, will further assist with the implementation of the Obesity Task Force Report. My Department and the Department of Education and Science have been involved in developing healthy eating guidelines for schools. Guidelines for pre-schools and primary schools are already developed and appropriate healthy eating training by community dieticians with pre-school and primary school staff is currently underway. Post-primary school guidelines will be launched in the coming weeks.

Funding has been provided by the HSE to UCD to record height and weight in children at school entry point as part of the Lifeways cohort. The HSE is currently working on a national database to monitor prevalence trends of growth, overweight and obesity. The HSE is participating in a WHO surveillance initiative to monitor growth and height in a cohort of children which is currently being completed and this will provide some baseline data for the national database.

The Cardiovascular Health Policy Group, due to report later this year, will also be advising on measures to tackle obesity.

The "Little Steps Go A Long Way" campaign, which was launched last month, is an all-island campaign led by the HSE, Safefood and the Health Promotion Agency of Northern Ireland. These agencies are working together with a common agenda of raising awareness of the growing problem of obesity and how we might address it. This partnership will support achieving maximum impact from the campaign and value for money for all involved.

The North-South Ministerial Conference recently agreed to the establishment of an all-island obesity action forum for a three year period. The forum will be facilitated and supported by Safefood, and will comprise a range of stakeholders including government departments, government agencies, health bodies and professional bodies. The forum will also include representation from stakeholders with a remit in physical activity to maximise cohesion in addressing obesity related issues. It is intended to hold an all-island Obesity Conference in Northern Ireland in the autumn of this year. This is being organised by the HSE and Health Promotion Agency (NI).

My Department continues to work with a number of Government Departments and agencies to promote healthy lifestyles, viz, the Department of Education on the SPHE programme and other health initiatives, the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform on alcohol related harms, the Department of Communications on food advertising codes, the Departments of Transport and Environment, Heritage and Local Government on enhancing the built and transport environments to encourage increased physical activity among the population and also the Irish Sports Council on promoting physical activity. It is planned to channel inter-sectoral work through the Senior Officials Group on Social Inclusion.