3221. Deputy Erin McGreehan asked the Minister for Health whether she will introduce statutory restrictions on influencer and digital marketing of food and non-alcoholic beverages high in fat, salt or sugar to children. [55281/26]

3222. Deputy Erin McGreehan asked the Minister for Health the assessment her Department has made of the Safefood ClickBite research on children’s exposure to unhealthy food marketing online and the legislative action that will follow from the research. [55282/26]

3223. Deputy Erin McGreehan asked the Minister for Health whether she supports the development of a mandatory nutrient-profile model to determine which food and beverage products may not be marketed to children online. [55283/26]

3224. Deputy Erin McGreehan asked the Minister for Health whether she will seek a cross-departmental working group involving the Departments of Health, Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment together with the CCPC and Coimisiún na Meán, to develop legislation on digital unhealthy food marketing. [55284/26]

I propose to take Questions Nos. 3221 to 3224, inclusive, together.

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 the obesity epidemic.

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 High saturated Fat, Salt and Sugar (HFSS) foods to children and will continue to engage with An Coimisiún on an ongoing basis as work in this area continues.

The Department is aware of the ClickBite research recently published by Safefood and welcomes the publication of this study. The Department will consider the results in any future considerations relating to policy and legislation on the advertisement of HFSS and sugar sweetened beverages to children. In 2025, officials from the Health & Wellbeing unit in the Department of Health presented to members of the Online Safety Taskforce, outlining the need for HFSS marketing restrictions to children to be included in the Taskforce’s recommendations. The need to reduce children’s exposure to promotion of HFSS content was subsequently included in the final report of the Taskforce, the full report of which can be found here: https://assets.gov.ie/static/documents/b192b694/Online_Health_Taskforce_Report_Final_Sept_2025.pdf

In 2023, the EU Joint Action “Best ReMaP” (Best practices in Reformulation, Marketing and public Procurement) completed its work and a suite of resources was published under the Work Package on restricting the marketing of unhealthy foods to children and adolescents. Ireland worked with 15 other Member States on this suite of resources which includes an EU coordinated approach using the WHO nutrient profile model for the identification of foods not permitted for marketing to children, guidance for Codes of Practice to reduce unhealthy food marketing and a report on a pilot EU-wide harmonised and comprehensive monitoring protocol for unhealthy food marketing. Coimisiún na Meán currently use the UK nutrient profile model that was developed in 2004, and consideration will be given to the application of a nutrient profile model in the event of the development of any legislation.

As previously mentioned, the Department of Health has regularly engaged with Coimisiún na Meán regarding the issue of restricting the advertisement of HFSS foods to children, including responding to previous public consultations outlining the need for stronger broadcasting codes to be introduced to protect children from HFSS advertising. Following on from the work done under Best ReMaP, the Department established the National Intersectoral Working Group on best practices to reduce the marketing of unhealthy foods to children and adolescents, which has is comprised of officials from a number of government departments and bodies. The group has engaged with An Coimisiún to recommend increased restrictions on marketing of HFSS food to children.

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 consulted with relevant stakeholders and will consider a range of options for inclusion in the development of the new strategy, including the marketing of HFSS foods and sugar sweetened beverages to children.