Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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435. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the progress that has been made on establishing an education research and policy section within her Department tasked with ensuring that education policy development in Ireland is informed by a strong evidence base, is outcome focused and cognisant of best international practices as outlined in the Programme for Government; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6453/22]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The Reform, Evaluation, Policy, Statistics & International Division includes the Central Policy Unit, Statistics section, the Public Service Reform Programme Office, and Data Compliance and Support Unit. The division leads the approach in ensuring the development and implementation of evidence-informed policies.

In this context, I can report that progress is being made in developing and strengthening my Department’s research and evaluation capacity. This includes economic and evaluation support from the Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Service (IGEES), Open Data, the provision of high quality, timely and policy relevant statistics to provide solid evidence for use in planning and resource allocation, publication of the Education Indicators report, providing advice and guidance to support the implementation of sectoral reform and innovation, implementation of the Department's Data Strategy and Open Data, and the Inspectorate’s work to improve the quality of learning and teaching.

Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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436. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if the new primary school healthy eating education programme as outlined in the Programme for Government has commenced; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6454/22]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The Programme for Government makes a commitment to: Establish a new Primary School Healthy Eating education programme. This work is ongoing within my Department, and in the interim I would like to point out that there is already considerable provision in schools in the area of healthy lifestyles.

As the Deputy may be aware, my Department works together with the Department of Health and other agencies to support students in area of health. My Department acknowledges the commitment of schools in promoting healthy lifestyle choices for students in a number of ways - the curriculum – for example Physical Education and Social Personal Health Education (SPHE); through schools policy including healthy lunch policies and by the use of resources and programmes chosen by the school. The Active School Flag (ASF) is one such programme. Work by my Department in this area aims to equip students with the skills and knowledge to enable them to make the right choices for healthy lifestyles throughout their lives.

My Department supports Agri Aware’s Incredible Edibles programme, a healthy eating initiative for Primary School pupils. The programme is also supported by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the Department of Health. It encourages schools across the country to grow carrots, lettuce, potatoes, strawberries, turnips and herbs. Schools are supplied with grow packs, activity sheets and videos containing everything needed to grow these foods.

The Food Dudes Programme is a healthy eating programme developed to encourage children to eat more fresh fruit and vegetables. It is implemented in primary schools and is based on repeated tastings of fruit and vegetables supported by positive role modelling and rewards. The Food Dudes Programme is currently being implemented in Ireland under an EU six-year strategy framework covering the period 1 August 2017-July 2023.

Throughout school, our young people are educated about the dangers of eating food which is unhealthy during their primary and second level education. The SPHE programme is a mandatory part of the curriculum in primary schools and in junior cycle. The programme is supported by comprehensive teacher guidelines and curriculum support services, which provide training and advice for schools, and also a resource directory.

At primary level, one of the SPHE strand units 'Taking care of my body' specifically addresses the need for regular exercise and activity as well as the area of nutrition and food and the need for a balanced diet. This unit is built upon from Infant classes onwards. By Fifth and Sixth classes, children are encouraged to realise and accept responsibility for making wise food choices and for adopting a healthy, balanced diet, and in that, exploring and examining the food pyramid.