Sugar tax and obesity treatment
Senator Noone welcomed the sugar tax but criticised the failure to ring-fence its revenue and argued for better treatment of obesity, including bariatric care. She stressed obesity should be treated as an illness and linked the issue to wider public health policy.
With regard to the sugar tax, which I welcome, it is my understanding that the approximately €50 million per annum which it is estimated will be generated from this tax will not be ring-fenced, which I do not understand. As I have stated on numerous occasions, one in four Irish children and one in three adults are now deemed to be either overweight or obese. I do not propose to repeat the statistics which I have regularly offered the House in this regard. The Lancet study of 2010 found that the incidence of diabetes has also significantly increased. I had a briefing on the issue last week and I thank the Members who attended. I intend to provide pre-diabetes testing in January on an appointment basis so that people do not have to wait lengthy periods on the day for a test. There was a lot of interest in the previous round of testing. I have the permission of the Superintendent to hold another round of testing in the medical room in January.
On the last occasion, we heard presentations from Dr. Grace O'Malley from Temple Street hospital and Dr. Heneghan, a bariatric surgeon from St. Vincent's Hospital who also works in the obesity department in St. Columcille's Hospital. It was apparent to me from those presentations that we are not treating obesity like the disease it is. There is no other disease treated in this country in the manner in which obesity is treated. Notwithstanding that it is a preventable disease in many instances, once people have it, it is nonetheless a disease and there is no direct treatment programme for it across the health services. Senator Norris has referred to obesity as "fatness".
Comment on this
People who are obese are fat but obesity is still an illness and we must treat it as such. Obesity is at odds with any other disease when it comes to how we treat it. It is that type of attitude that highlights the difficulty in treating this area.
I find it incomprehensible that the Department of Finance does not intend to ring-fence moneys accruing from the sugar tax. Clearly, it is a costing issue and a finance issue as to the reason bariatric treatment cannot be provided to morbidly obese people. We heard a great deal of evidence in that regard. The plastic bag levy was implemented and the proceeds of it were used for environmental initiatives and something similar should be done in respect of this tax. This is a very important issue.
Comment on this
Last night, the Seanad progressed legislation recognising the rights of the deaf community. It came to the attention of many of us after the debate -and to my attention online - that the Oireachtas could not facilitate access to the full broadcast of that debate. This opens up the wider conversation of why the Oireachtas and this Parliament does not face outwards and why broadcasts of the Oireachtas and Parliament cannot be accessed by all of our communities. The Irish Deaf Society thanked Ms Catherine White who live-streamed a live interpretation of yesterday's proceedings on the Recognition of Irish Sign Language for the Deaf Community Bill 2016. It is hugely problematic and deeply upsetting that the deaf community could not access all debates relevant to their lives. I would welcome a comment from the Leader on what we can do in this Chamber to ensure that the Oireachtas broadcast of debates here is fully accessible and whether this is a matter for the Committee on Procedure and Privileges.