Is weight screening in our schools the way forward when it comes to tackling childhood obesity?

Dr. Cathal McCrory, Senior Research Fellow in Psychology at Trinity College Dublin, wants to see this introduced.

"One in four children in Ireland are overweight or obese at three years of age, and Ireland is on track to be the fattest country in Europe by 2030," he explains.

"The time for action is now. We can't continue to talk about childhood obesity being a problem, we need to act."

Cathal's idea is that children would have their BMI and waist circumference measured, which would give an idea of the national prevalence of obesity among different age groups.

He feels there should also be intervention programmes both in schools and in the home.

Cathal also believes the money from the newly introduced sugar tax should be used to recruit public health nurses who would go to schools and weigh the children.

To catch the full chat press the play button on the image on the top of the screen