Department urged to ban vending machines in schools
Politicians have told the Department of Education and Skills to ban vending machines amid claims that some schools are using them to supplement their income.
“I think vending machines in schools should be banned unless they are dispensing water,” Fianna Fáil TD Anne Rabbitte told a meeting of the joint committee on children and youth affairs.
“There should be a directive straight away from the Department of Education banning vending machines in schools.
“It’s children’s health we are talking about here. The children are not in control so we have to support them.”
Senator Catherine Noone, who chaired the meeting to discuss ways of tackling childhood obesity, said she had been urging the department to get rid of vending machines for seven years.
“There should be a directive on this from the department. We need to take this more seriously. It is not good enough,” she said.
Assistant principal officer at the Department of Education and Skills, Rita Sexton, said they were aware that vending machines were used as an income stream for schools.
“But the current position is that it is a matter for the board of management of the school. Currently, the department has no policy in place to ban vending machines.”
Ms Sexton said a previous survey showed that 27% of post-primary schools had vending machines.
Ms Rabbitte said she thought it would have to come to “naming and shaming” the schools before any action was taken.
The head of health and wellbeing at the Department of Health, Kate O’Flaherty, said they had worked with the Department of Education in implementing healthy vending policy.
Ms O’Flaherty said it was intended that vending machines would have a 60/40 mix of confectionary and healthy options.
However, she admitted that they had not looked too closely at how the policy had been implemented.
Principal officer at the Department of Education and Skills, Eamon Cusack, told Sinn Féin TD Denise Mitchell they would support any school that wished to oppose a fast food outlet opening near them.
“If any school approaches us for assistance in objecting to a planning objection application we would certainly give them letters of support. That would not be a problem."
Ms Sexton told Fine Gael TD Tom Neville they had “no concrete evidence” that schools were imposing a “no run” policy because of insurance concerns but believed the number of schools was “very small”.
Mr Neville and Ms Noone said they had heard a lot of anecdotal evidence that children could not run at break times.
Ms Sexton said a question about a “no run” policy could be included in their next Life Skills survey that would be issued before the end of this school year.
Mr Neville said the schools should be identified now and the practice stopped.
Ms O’Flaherty said a previous survey found that the number of schools that had a “no run” policy was “tiny” — it was about 3% of schools and the number had decreased over time.
Ms Noone believed the practice was more common than admitted by schools. “We cannot let the insurance industry hold us to ransom when it comes to children running in schools,” she said.
