Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I welcome our guests. This is a very important subject. It is good that we are having a conversation on this issue. When we speak about eating disorders, of which there is a full spectrum, we cannot do so if we do not talk about the society in which we live. There is a massive amount of pressure, particularly on young people, to look a certain way. That manifests in all sorts of ways. Twenty years' ago, television and radio were obviously prevalent, but there was also the prevalence of what I would call glamour and glossy magazines, especially those relating to how women should look. That kind of stuff is very insidious with regard to how young women should look. That trickles down into certain manifestations, in particular in respect of eating disorders. Obviously, social media brings them to a different platform and many young people will use that. That will have much influence on what they see and hear. That influence can really distort somebody's image of themselves via body shaming and the amount of pressure that is put on young people to look a certain way. This stuff is sometimes peddled by major companies and big multinationals for the glamour industry. That kind of unconscientious marketing has a terrible effect on young people. That cannot be overstated.

In such circumstances, young people are presenting with eating disorders, of which, as I said, there is a full spectrum. Over the past two and a half years with Covid, there has been an acceleration of this. There are a number of factors as to why that happened.

My first question relates to public and private health services. Generally, from my understanding, the vast majority of inpatient beds for eating disorders are in the private sector. Am I correct?