Former Dublin senior football captain accuses coalition ‘adding to obesity epidemic’
He believes the Lansdowne Road agreement was a major contributory factor to the problem.
Under a deal, which followed on from the Croke Park, Haddington Road, and previous agreements, teachers are required to work an extra 33 hours per school year in non-classroom contact. Time spent by teachers engaged in sports after school does not count.
“The sad thing is that when it comes to obesity, we’re creators of our own downfall,” he said.
The current manager of the Dublin minors and vice-principal at Our Lady of Victories Boys NS in Ballymun said: “There’s not enough emphasis on sport in school.
“It’s nonsensical to be talking about the millions of euro spent on putting taskforces together when some of the most obvious solutions are on our doorsteps.
“The Lansdowne Road agreement stops the extra hours they want to get out of teachers being used for sport.
“And I can’t understand why millions, and possibly billions of euro, will be put aside to combat obesity when teachers aren’t allowed to use these hours for sport.”
Mr Christie said: “You can’t call yourself a sporting nation when this is going on for the last number of years. It’s ironic that the Croke Park and Lansdowne Road agreements are synonymous with sporting venues, when we took such a negative step.”
World Health Organisation figures suggest Ireland is on course to be the most obese country in Europe, as the continent faces a crisis of “enormous proportions” by 2030.
Mr Christie cited anecdotal evidence of schools not engaging in physical education classes for weeks on end, and he also pinpointed another major problem.
He said: “Working parents have their kids in childcare and are only getting home themselves at six in the evening so their kids are not physically active.
“The only activity some of them will get is through the schools so for the schools to be hamstrung like this is devastating.
“I wouldn’t consider myself a political person but the various parties have been talking about the economy and other stuff but very few have mentioned anything to do with sport or exercise.
“From talking to Niall Moyna at DCU [head of the School of Health and Human Performance], he has very strong feelings on this and believes it will cost the country an awful lot of money in the years to come.
“He’s not talking about millions — it’s billions — but would we not be better off preventing this in the first place?
“One of the terms of the Lansdowne Road agreement specifically states that whole school hours should not be used to account for voluntary work carried out by teachers, such as sport,” said Mr Christie. “So sport is not considered part of any contribution to the school? What a kick in the teeth for somebody that’s done it for over 40 years, for example.”
