Minister's secret to good health - tighten your belt!

The Minister for Health has suggested that one of the best ways to save the country billions in the future is to tighten our belts – and thus cut a different kind of waist!

Health Minister James Reilly issued his prescription in Carna this week to ease the burden on the state finances, by cutting the cost of caring for older people in the decades ahead.

“If everybody had a BMI (Body Mass Index) of 25 and people stopped smoking we would go a long way towards solving the problem (rising costs of care for older people),” said Minister Reilly, himself a man with a not-insignificant waistband.

When it was suggested to the Minister – who is a Medical Doctor by profession – that people will eventually be affected by the passing years anyhow the Minister said that the effects would be far less in those who lead a healthy lifestyle; they would need less care and spend less time incapacitated he said.

Minister Reilly was speaking at the opening of an Assisted Living Unit in Carna.

See full story in this week's Connacht Tribune.