Government must tackle childhood obesity says Crowe

Sinn Féin TD for Dublin South West Seán Crowe has said that the government must do more to tackle childhood obesity.

Evidence presented by Safefood Ireland evidence to the Oireachtas Health Committee indicates that successive governments have done “little” to move the needle since the plan was introduced in 2016.

Safefood’s evidence indicated that 1 in 5 children suffer from obesity and that this figure rises to 1 in 4 among children in poor and disadvantaged areas.

“This figure is in line with evidence given by the HSE to the Oireachtas Committee on Children in 2018. In six years, we have not moved the needle when it comes to confronting this issue and it is young and poor children who are suffering most,” said Crowe.

“A range of additional measures must be considered in the fight against childhood obesity. We must radically increase funding for Healthy Ireland through sugar tax revenues. We should restrict television marketing of unhealthy food and drinks to after 7pm. We also need to work with retailers so that parents do not have to run a gauntlet of unhealthy foods when they are out shopping with their children.”

Crowe said that a tax on high-salt, high-fat product should be introduced, similar to how sugar is taxed.

“Some of these measures may seem extreme but with childhood obesity leading to ever greater levels of diabetes and other health concerns, we cannot afford not to. It is well past time that we started taking the issue of childhood obesity seriously,” he said.