254. Deputy Denise Mitchell asked the Minister for Health the steps she is taking to restrict the advertising of food high in fat, sugar and salt, commonly referred to as junk food, to children via digital means and online marketing; if she is considering mandatory codes to restrict such advertising; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [48175/26]

The current Obesity Policy and Action Plan (OPAP) was launched in September 2016 under the auspices of the Healthy Ireland Framework (Healthy Ireland: A Framework for Improved Health and Wellbeing 2013-2025).

OPAP covers a 10-year period up to 2025 and the overall aim is to reverse obesity trends, prevent health complications, and reduce the impact of overweight and obesity on health outcomes for individuals, families, the health system, and the wider society and economy. It recognises that obesity is a complex, multi-faceted problem and needs a multi-pronged solution, with every sector of society playing its part. OPAP is well aligned with the World Health Organisation in terms of the breadth of policy measures that have been introduced or are being considered in order to address obesity.

Under OPAP, Ireland put in place a comprehensive, cross-Government strategy to address obesity and overweight. Since 2016 significant progress has been made in delivering on the Ten Step Programme of OPAP and to drive policy initiatives and actions, ranging from health promotion and education initiatives and obesity prevention measures through to establishing services to treat and manage obesity within the health care system.

In 2024, the Safefood ‘Building a Healthier Environment’ public health campaign was launched by the then Minister of State for Public Health, Wellbeing and the National Drugs Strategy Colm Burke. The campaign aims to raise awareness of the unhealthy food environment, how this is harmful to children’s health and why it needs to change, particularly by highlighting the current prevalence and accessibility of unhealthy foods within the food environment and highlighting how much unhealthy foods in supermarkets are placed at children’s eye level. More information on this campaign can be found here (www.safefood.net/communications/news/2024/building-a-healthier-food-environment). To this end, the Department of Health has engaged regularly with Coimisiún na Meán regarding the issue of restricting the advertisement of HFSS foods to children and will continue to engage with An Coimisiún on an ongoing basis as work in this area continues.

The new OPAP is currently in development and is expected to be completed and published by the end of this year. As part of the development of the new OPAP, the Department has conducted an extensive stakeholder consultation and will consider a range of options for inclusion in the development of the new strategy.