The Green Party is to table a private members bill in the Dáil today aimed at protecting children from television advertising.
The proposed bill aims to restrict advertising of fast food and toys, and it will also include a ban on advertising to children under a certain age.
In September the Green Party carried out a survey of 200 adverts during children's daytime television and found that over half the adverts were for junk food.
The Greens warn that childhood obesity is on the rise and said that "we face the prospect of life expectancy actually going down for the first time in a hundred years," as a result.
According to independent research conducted for the Food Standards Agency in the UK "advertising to children does have an effect on their preferences, purchase behaviour and consumption".
Meanwhile, speaking at the party's press conference in Dublin today Green Party MEP Patricia McKenna said "parents and everyone who wants TV advertisement aimed at Children banned should make their views known now to the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland."
The Broadcasting Commission of Ireland is currently inviting submissions on the issue on its online questionnaire www.bci.ie. Both children and adults are invited to take part. The closing date for the questionairre is Monday December 22nd.
"This is our last chance to do something about children's advertising. If there is not a strong message from the public on the issue then the advertising industry will interpret it as a signal that parents don't care about the issue", Ms McKenna concluded.