Measures to cut childhood obesity by 50%, including a blanket ban on junk food marketing to children and a levy on sweets, are widely supported by the public, a new survey suggests.

Consultant bariatric surgeon, professor Helen Heneghan has called on the Department of Health to establish an obesity programme, and to properly invest in it.

Ireland spends less on obesity treatment than any other EU country despite more than a million people living with the “treatable disease”.

Children of obese mothers are more likely to develop diabetes and heart disease, it has emerged.

One in six school children are overweight or obese and while levels appear to have stabilised or decreased in recent years, especially in girls, they are still too high.