Catherine Noone (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I attended a briefing yesterday on the issue of childhood obesity. It has been raised by a number of Senators in this House, including myself, on numerous occasions but the statistics are frightening in that one in four Irish children are now classified as being overweight, and one in ten of them are deemed to be obese. We could talk about statistics all day but that is the reality for many children. If these statistics are correct, obese children who are not treated cost our paediatric hospitals €5,164 per year. That comes to an annual amount of €500 million. It is a very serious issue. The health committee is inviting various experts to come before it but the reality is that the experts are not in the area of paediatrics. We need specific expertise from specialised paediatricians in this area.

I want to highlight Temple Street hospital's W82GO! programme, which is very effective but does not get any Government funding. It costs approximately €600 per patient per year and the people involved are managing to carry out this function without any Government funding. I call on the Health Service Executive to try to find a way to get more funding as soon as possible to deal with what is a serious problem that is on the increase, and which will do untold damage to future generations.