All vending machines dispensing snacks and soft drinks should be banned from schools and health premises in a effort to curb rising obesity levels, the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) has said.
The IMO, which represents almost 6,000 doctors, has also urged the authorities to ban fast food and drink advertising on television before 9pm.
In a position paper on obesity which it published yesterday, the IMO notes that over the past decade, the prevalence of overweight and obesity has escalated alarmingly to the extent that the World Health Organisation has described the problem as "a global epidemic".
In the Republic 39 per cent of the adult population is overweight and 18 per cent is obese.
Childhood obesity has increased threefold since 1990. The number of overweight or obese children in Ireland in 2005 was estimated at 327,000 and is rising at the rate of 10,750 per year, the IMO says.
It adds that people who are obese have a greater risk of developing a range of medical conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and stroke.
The cost of treating obesity and related illnesses in the Republic is close to €500 million a year.
The IMO calls on the Minister for Health Mary Harney to implement immediately the findings of the National Taskforce on Obesity published in May 2005.
It says €3 million was allocated to the Health Service Executive to implement its findings this year which is "insufficient".
In addition, it says the only dedicated obesity clinic in the State at Dublin's Loughlinstown hospital is "struggling to cope" with the growing number of seriously obese patients seeking treatment.
Since it opened in 2002, about a dozen patients ranging in age from 22 to 53 have died while waiting to be seen at the clinic.
"The need to invest in hospital obesity services on a national level is evident," the position paper states.
It also says multi-disciplinary specialist centres with resources to perform weight reduction surgery need to be established nationwide.
It calls for all Government departments, including education and transport, to work in a co-ordinated way on the problem.