Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Improving the health and wellbeing of the people of Ireland is central to the work of Government. The vision for Healthy Ireland in the Department of Health is where everyone can enjoy physical and mental health and wellbeing to their full potential and where wellbeing is valued and supported at every level in society.

To achieve this, a whole of society approach is required and it is widely acknowledged at international level that the workplace is an ideal setting to promote employee health and wellbeing, providing multiple benefits to employees and employers, as well as broader social and economic gains.

Given the dimension and complexity of workplace health, a multi-agency and multi-disciplinary approach was required. The National Framework for Healthy Workplaces was developed by a sub-group co-chaired by the Department of Health and the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation with the support of the Institute of Public Health and key stakeholders and was launched in December 2021.

The Framework is underpinned by robust evidence and consultation, and provides strategic direction and flexible guidance that can be adapted to any workplace to help create and sustain health and wellbeing among the workforce. It integrates existing laws and policies and aligns with other government strategies on issues like reducing injuries and ill-health, promoting active travel and positive mental health.

The Healthy Workplace website, launched in May 2023 provides content on workplace related health and wellbeing as well as interactive tools to support workplaces to deliver and evaluate wellbeing interventions in their organisations. Specific universal information for workplaces in relation to increasing opportunities for physical activity in the workplace is included in a dedicated “physical” wellbeing area. This includes initiatives to support both employers and employees at both organisational and individual levels. The website is available at healthyworkplace.ie/.

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Healthy Ireland, A Framework for Improved Health and Wellbeing 2013-2025, was launched in March 2013 and is the national Framework supporting the health and wellbeing of the country. It takes a “whole of Government” and “whole of society” approach to improving health and wellbeing. The Framework is based on international research, experience and thinking in addressing the broad social determinants of health.

Healthy Ireland seeks to tackle the major lifestyle issues which lead to negative health outcomes, including smoking, alcohol, poor diet, physical inactivity, obesity. The Framework aims to shift the focus to prevention, seeks to reduce health inequalities, and emphasises the need to empower people and communities to better support their own health and wellbeing.

‘A Healthy Weight for Ireland’, the Obesity Policy and Action Plan (OPAP)’, was launched in September 2016 under the auspices of the Healthy Ireland Framework. The OPAP covers a ten-year period up to 2025 and aims to reverse obesity trends, prevent health complications and reduce the overall burden for individuals, families, the health system, and the wider society and economy.

The development of healthy eating guidelines is identified as an action in the OPAP. To date, a suite of age-specific guidelines have been produced in collaboration with the Scientific Nutrition Sub- Committee in the Food Standards Authority of Ireland (FSAI). The FSAI were commissioned by the Department of Health to review scientific evidence to inform the guidelines for each age group reflecting differences in nutritional requirements over the life- course.

Healthy Eating Guidelines for Adults, Teenagers and Children 5 years and older were published in 2016, followed by Healthy Eating Guidelines for 1- to 4-year-olds in 2020. Both resources use the food pyramid as a visual tool to demonstrate which food groups should be consumed in relevant quantities for good health. Healthy Eating Guidelines for over-65s were published in 2021 and corresponding resources across all age groups are available on the Healthy Ireland website.

The FSAI Scientific Committee are currently in the process of preparing Scientific Food-Based Dietary Guidelines for Teenagers, which includes a section on sustainability to promote human and planetary health, and they are expected to be published in 2024. Once these guidelines are available, they will inform the design of healthy eating resources for the public via Healthy Ireland and HSE websites.