Poll: Should Ireland ban junk food ads aimed at children from print and social media?

Ban ff from government for selling our fish oil and gas ban ff for economic treason

I think its more : yes there are lazy parents with no willpower/can’t say no, but a ban might stop kids asking those extra times. Its about looking after the kids with crap parents rather than doing the parents job

Most parents who feed their families junk food or ready meals aren’t lazy. Unfortunately we live in a time where many people just don’t know how to cook while many others work so hard they just don’t have time to cook from scratch. I deal with people like this everyday and most want nothing more than to feed their families a healthy diet of homemade meals. Cooking tasty, healthy homemade meals at home is easy when you know how to do it. In fact, I can easily show you how to cook a homemade meal faster and cheaper than any take away can deliver. Most people don’t want to nor have the energy to spend an hour or more in a kitchen cooking at the end of a hard days work when they have to help with homework etc. Many meals can be made in less than 20 minutes, the problem is most people don’t know how. These are skills we should be teaching parents and kids in schools. I give free demos in schools up and down the country and they are always packed with parents keen to learn. If they were lazy parents then my demos wouldn’t be so packed.

Good plug for yourself, but a green thumb anyway, because you’re dead right. The wife and I often don’t feel like cooking after a hard day but we both know how to throw a good feed together in less than half an hour. Less time than either waiting for a takeaway delivery or going to collect it, and cheaper too.

Everybody knows how to boil a few spuds.

I don’t charge nor make money from what I do so it’s not a plug as you say. I set BiaMaith up to help struggling families eat better food on a budget. It’s not a business nor am I a blogger. I pay for it all out of my own money and don’t ask for a cent from anyone. The few ads on my site don’t come close to covering the hosting costs I pay each month. My site is there to help people, nothing more.

@KEV:

Do you understand how marketing works and why organisations spend billions on it every year, it is not just down to whether parents are lazy or not. Maybe some or uneducated and know no better, maybe some are under pressure and then maybe they are not always with their children when they are in shops. Try thinking for more than a half a second before posting

@Nick Allen:
*are not or

I know exactly how marketing works. I also know how a balanced diet works. I also know a crap tea night isn’t a bad thing. I also know it’s really good to say no, and stick to it.

@KEV: Can i just send them to Fat Camp for a few weeks.

@KEV:

For a person that claims to know so much it is a pity that you can’t put all of your thoughts together and interpret the causes behind children over eating on junk food a little more critically. Believe it or not the issue is a lot more complex than simply being caused by ‘Lazy Parents’.

@BiaMaith: You’ve hit the nail on the head. Unfortunately it costs less to put junk fast food on a family table than it does to put wholesome unprocessed food that’s come out of the ground. Where is the logic in that?

Nick. I know it is. I completely understand it is complex. There is no one size fits all approach to solving Ireland’s growing obesity problems. But I do know simply banning advertising in a digital age is nothing more than a government box ticking exercise. If they said look we’re gonna regulate advertising to the watershed along with introduce food nutrition into education from the start, along with adding more PE to the school day, I’d take it seriously. It’s the same as the sugar tax. It’s pointless unless the above is done with it. It’s attitude that needs changing. The attitude of want and need. As parents we all know it’s cheaper to eat healthy and it’s not as hard as some would have you believe.

Kev

You are changing your argument away from lazy parents but you are still getting it wrong. Advertising works, it is a proven. This is why the Tobacco and alcohol industries are being restricted with where, when and how they can advertise. Reducing the availability of advertising of junk food to children will without question reduce the consumption of junk food by children. This is a fact and not an opinion

@СIΔЯΔИ: I actually find it a lot cheaper to use fresh foods and can never understand how some people can afford all the quick meals and junk food they feed their kids, also then when using fresh foods I will usually have some left over to cook another day,

Salad is easy to prepare but it’s rabbit food

Kev…the argument has two sides. Firstly, the state as well as everyone else recognizes that obese children = obese adults = overwhelming extra costs for the present and future public health service = more taxes to suport adults who cannot work. However this needs “beyond the next election” thinking, which has never been apparent in our political class.
Secondly like all european countries the government depends for its defence and its economic progress on the goodwill of U.S. investors. They cannot go against the neo – liberal orthodoxy imposed on any number of european states by the U.S.
If they want to sell crap food to our children and our government want to stand up to this then the International American Chambers of Commerce organisation will quickly ensure that U.S. potential investment in Ireland is cut back. If TTIP goes through then U.S. multinationals will be able to sue the Irish government for the loss of profit costs they might incur because of potential Irish legislation to limit the effects of fast foods on the health of Irish children.
It may not be entirely co-incidental that the U.S. health care industry is actively trying to undermine socialized health care in a number of european states at the present time. This industry has a budget that is reportedly higher than any government in the world except for the five biggest national economies.
So dream on about consensual change to obesity health policies. Our politicians across europe are being bribed to deny the issue exists. If they don’t take the bribe the threats are of investment and job losses in other parts of their national economies.
Consider also that this is the position before Trump asumes office!

Exactly

@Gavin Redmond: The problem with educating children in schools about it is that the government underfund our schools and know full well that without vending machines selling crap foods all schools would be running a bigger deficit. It would be hypocritical which is why it won’t change. Ruairi Quinn was asked if he would ban them and he said no because he knew he was going to cut the funding to schools and they needed easy money. They’d rather schools sell crap, let children put on weight which will inevitably cost the taxpayer money in years to come but they’ll be long gone from politics.

Slightly off topic but for a school with 600 students:
In 2009 schools got €346 per student = €207,000
In 2015 schools get €291 per students = €174,000
That’s the difference of €33,099.

Points to note about purchasing in schools:
1) They are not allowed to claim back VAT because they’re not a ‘business’ while most schools in the EU can.
2) They pay water charges the same as every other business yet they are not a business.
3) They have to purchase for those on the procurement list. Once these companies get a contract they charge extortionate amounts of money for supplies and schools have no choice. No name brand cleaning products, stationary have outrageous prices as they know schools HAVE to buy from them. A laptop charger cost us €125 for a brand that was on eBay for £12.00.
4) Schools have old inefficient heating systems, old plumbing and most old schools break current laws regarding fire safety and access yet the dept.. When a school asks to fix it or upgrade it they’re told to use their budget or apply under the Summer Works Scheme (This year the government gave €36mil to it but only spent around €4 of that and haven’t approved the rest).

If schools didn’t have voluntary contributions and vending machines they would not survive. The government know this which is why they won’t do a thing about it.

@John Weldon. Actually that’s not a bad idea.

The problem I see is that Junk Food is an American invention, but in the US, healthcare is not free or universal as means of taxation. In the US, if you are fat, you pay for your own consequences, so it would make sense to leave it to the people to decide and have a very relaxed policy on food and health since everyone is responsible for themselves and if someone becomes fat and diabetic, then the taxpayer is not paying for that, his non government subsidised overpriced health insurance or himself out of pocket would.

But in Ireland where we have a system, where although is not perfect with inhuman waiting lists for some things, is more human and gives us a better piece of mind. But if we are paying for someone’s diabetes treatment, heart diseases, and all problems related to bad diet, smoking and alcohol consumption then its normal that the government has to step in someone and legislate. Eating junk food smoking and drinking alcohol WILL affect you one way or another that’s as clear as maths, it will happen. So why should we reward someone’s bad choices in lives with no consequences?

@Gavin Redmond: thats a great idea , ban TAX, hee hee.

Then more of our contributors would be able to spell simple words like ‘plough’ correctly!

Well if you know how google ads work then it should be easy for you to stop children seeing ads you consider inappropriate.

@Mr Grumble: They can only say no if they get rid of the television. are you in favour of that? Would that interfere with your notion of the freedom of the individual to swallow all sorts of consumerist nonsense from the billionaire controlled media?