Dr. Cliodhna Foley-Nolan:

It is an important issue and also part of the stigma, denial and sensitivity. We considered it when we were conducting the Stop the Spread campaign. It was aimed at adults, but, like lots of television programmes aimed at adults, it did not stop children watching and thinking.

We did a lot of research on whether there was evidence that educational and awareness programmes were promoting or in any way triggering eating disorders and the evidence is that it is not an issue. One of the other challenges we have is that parents of teenage girls or girls going into puberty, in particular, tend to shy away from this. The fear has probably been overstated. Basically, eating disorders are a psychological issue. All the excellent voluntary agencies and support agencies say that it is a control issue that will come out in this way. It is another thing we must work with. We are working with the voluntary agencies and get them to check out the things we say to ensure they are happy with them and see them as positive and constructive rather than negative in any way.