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Minister for Children & Youth Affairs Frances Fitzgerald T.D. has welcomed the government’s new Public Heath Policy Framework initiated today and has pledged her Department’s commitment to putting in place robust strategies and a concerted programme of firm action to address the public health challenges facing Irish children and young people.

Addressing the Public Heath Policy Framework consultation day in the Royal College of Physicians, Minister Fitzgerald warned that: “if we allow current trends relating to preventable public health risks to continue, then we are condemning our future generations to a future of ill health.

“We’ve heard warnings of the costs of our national debt for future generations and we’ve heard talk of a looming pension crisis. But I really don’t think we have yet faced-up to the health time-bomb, which, if left unchecked, will be coming down the tracks very fast.

“While it is impossible to put a monetary value on one’s health, it is very easy to put a cost on ill-health. As a state we simply cannot afford the future costs of healthcare that will flow if we do not seek to address the challenges posed by childhood obesity, alcohol, and tobacco, given the predicted disease burden associated with these preventable public health risks.

The Minister outlined some current statistics relating to the public health risks posed by childhood obesity, alcohol, and tobacco:

• Almost one-quarter of 7-year-old children are either overweight or obese.
• Irish children are drinking from a younger age and drinking more than ever before, with over half of Irish 16 year olds having been drunk at some point.  One in five is a weekly drinker.
• The mean age of first alcohol use among Irish drinkers had declined from 16 for children born in the 80s to 14 for those born in the 90s.
• 8.5% of children aged 9-17 reported smoking cigarettes every day.
• There has been a sharp increase in smoking prevalence in children between the ages of 15-18 since 2006. Recent EU data shows that Ireland is one of the few countries in the EU with a rising prevalence of smoking.

The Minister welcomed the new public health Policy Framework being initiated today and stated that “as Minister for Children and Youth Affairs I want to be a Champion for Children’s Health. One of the reasons we now have a dedicated senior ministry for children and young people is to provide leadership and co-ordination across government departments to improve the well-being of children. With this is mind, I will be mandating my Department to engage with the new framework to map out robust strategies and a concerted programme of firm actions to arrest the rise of preventable public health risks and to improve the public health outcomes for our nation’s children.