It’s rather frightening to read that in Ireland, only 19 percent of primary schoolchildren and 12 percent of secondary students meet the physical activity recommendations and that recent studies have shown one in four Irish children to be unfit, overweight or obese.
Furthermore, a recent WHO report predicted Ireland will become the most obese country in Europe by 2030 with the number of overweight Irish men expected to reach 89 percent and a corresponding 85 per cent of women.
Former schoolteacher Seán Kelly MEP, speaking at a recent conference in Brussels said these shockingly low levels of activity amongst children has been blamed on ‘too little sport during school’. He wants to see a greater level of public financing available to community sports organisations in order to boost the physical activity of people of all ages for a healthier society.
Apart from unhealthy eating habits, surely the amount of time being spent by children on computer games and watching TV instead of enjoying more outdoor activity, has a great bearing on these statistics?
