The Irish Heart Foundation (IHF) is calling for a €30 million fund to be set aside in Budget 2015, with the aim of protecting the health of children.

As part of its pre-Budget submission, the charity said that a ‘Children's Future Health Fund' could deliver a number of measures for the country's young people, such as the introduction of subsidies for fruit and vegetables, and the provision of nutritious food in schools including the establishment of breakfast clubs for disadvantaged schools.

The IHF insisted that such a fund could be financed if a 20% tax on sugar-sweetened drinks was introduced - this would provide around €60 million to the Exchequer.

"As a society we are abjectly failing both the one in four of our children who are overweight or obese and the estimated 20% who go to bed hungry at night because their families cannot adequately feed them. The Children's Future Health Fund would provide a means for the Government to tackle this appalling reality and to actually boost its coffers at the same time," commented the IHF's head of advocacy, Chris Macey.

The pre-Budget submission said that this children's fund should be used to focus on three specific areas:
-Improved childhood nutrition
-Stopping children from taking up smoking
-Underage drinking

"The sad fact is that more children are overweight in Ireland than in most European countries, they are drinking alcohol from a younger age and drinking more than ever before, and they take up smoking at a lower age than any other EU country. This clearly represents a failure to properly protect the health of our children," said IHF head of health promotion, Maureen Mulvihill.

While acknowledging that parents have a responsibility for their children's health, she noted that it is the ‘State's responsibility to deal with the many serious drivers of childhood obesity, smoking and drinking that are beyond parents' control'.

"One crucial area is the affordability of healthy foods, which are up to 10 times more expensive than foods high in fat, sugar and salt. International studies show that subsidies work by increasing consumption of promoted products," Ms Mulvihill added.