Dr. Donal O'Shea:

Senator Eamonn Coghlan's programme is one part of that.

I will briefly respond to each of the comments. The personal responsibility comment from Deputy Byrne is critical. One of the big problems is that parents do not recognise their child is overweight until it is too late. By the time they recognise it they are in serious trouble, as the child has an 80% chance of being obese as an adult because if it is let happen it tracks, so to speak.

To respond to Deputy Naughten, the role of the public health nurse in breast-feeding and monitoring will be critical. Currently, we weigh children up to the age of four. That is done historically because of under-nutrition. The problem now is over-nutrition. We stop weighing them at the age of four but we must continue doing that and tell the parents that their child is on track or a little over but they should keep it steady because they will grow into it.

On Deputy Dowds's question about banning advertising of unhealthy foods and letting the industry promote healthy options for every unhealthy option they advertise, that is part of the bigger industry health collaboration. The industry has a lot to bring to the table in terms of advertising. Its expertise is fantastic. If industry were to promote Dr. Flynn's guidelines from the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, FSAI, that combination would be magic.

To respond to Senator Crown's point on professional regulation and professional education, one of the recommendations of the obesity task force in 2005 was that education about nutrition and obesity would be embedded into nursing, medicine and all allied health. It is similar to the rest of the 96 recommendations. It did not get the attention it needed because it did not have the political clout from the top. Our waiting list for surgery is now infinite. We have more than 150 people awaiting surgery-----