Oireachtas Health Committee urged to take practical steps to promote health

Dr Campbell told Sinn Féin health spokesman David Cullinane that regulation to limit access to products is more effective than asking individuals to make that choice. File picture: PA 

Policies such as moving fast food shops away from schools are far more effective at tackling obesity than blaming individuals for their choices, the Oireachtas Health Committee has been told.

However the government is stuck in “a treatment trap” where it focuses on providing more beds for more sick people instead of funding illness prevention programmes, the newly-formed Health Promotion Alliance Ireland said.