Health Minister James Reilly has insisted that his his plan to introduce a 'sugar tax' on soft drinks is still on the Government's agenda.

The Government recently long-fingered Dr Reilly's proposal to introduce a tax on excess sugar in these products, in a bid to combat our rising obesity levels.

Dr Reilly, speaking after the launch of a new report on improving the nation's health - 'Healthy Ireland' - said the sugar tax 'hasn't gone away yet'.

The Minister had been asked about the difficulties in implementing this and previous strategies to improve people's health in the context of major pressure from vested interests in the food and drinks industry and elsewhere.

He said it was not his intention that the new strategy would be merely aspirational, and he had the support from the Taoiseach and the entire Government on it.

"Of course there will always be resistance from different sectors as they feel that their interests might not be best served by some of the things we intend to do."

He said the new strategy would be measured and monitored and the Government would be forcing change on it.

Dr Reilly said change did not come easily but he would persist, and the sugar tax issue had not gone away.

The 'Healthy Ireland' report outlines '64 broad inter-sectoral actions' between Government Departments, State agencies and other bodies aimed at tackling current health issues including obesity, smoking, alcohol and cancer.

The 64 actions include setting up a Healthy Ireland Council to provide a national advisory forum to support implementation of the report across sectors, and to establish a health and wellbeing programme in the Department of Health.

The actions also include to develop a plan to promote increased physical activity levels across the population, and to develop 'activity-friendly' environments, including cycle lanes and playgrounds.

Specific performance targets in the report include many outlined in previous strategies in recent years, including increasing healthy life expectancy, increasing the number of adults and children with a healthy weight and increasing the proportion of adults eating the recommended five or more servings of fruit and vegetables per day.

The strategy also aims at reducing alcohol consumption and smoking initiation rates and reducing salt intake.

It also aims to reduce the percentage of the population in consistent poverty to 4% by 2016. However, the plan does not set a specific target for reducing the percentage of people at risk of poverty.

Minister moves on plain cig packaging

Say Hi to Healthy Ireland