One in four primary school children in Ireland are either overweight or obese, according to figures from the national "Growing up in Ireland survey".
Today marks the launch of Nourish Children Week which focuses on the lack of HSE childhood obesity services.
Dietician and head of the Irish Nutrition & Dietetic Institute, Richelle Flanagan, outlines the challenges they face.
She said: "73% of the country doesn't have access to a child obesity programme and 88% of the country doesn't have access to a group intervention programme when kids are already obese.
"We are urgently calling on the Government to devise a childhood obesity strategy and implementation plan."