PLASTIC SURGERY FOR KIDS IS MADNESS

Sunday Mirror, Jul 15, 2007 by STEPHEN MAGUIRE

YOU can tell there's too much money floating about in Ireland.

People have second homes, most households have two cars and the average family is taking at least two holidays a year.

Oh, and I almost forgot... mums are buying their daughters bigger boobs as rewards for doing well in the Leaving cert.

Not that cosmetic surgery clinics here would encourage such a sad move with the times. Una Brankin of Advanced Cosmetic Surgery said "There was one girl who was just 17 and she wanted breast augmentation but we refused - until she was 18".

It's this kind of responsible attitude that makes me sleep sounder at night!

And before the women's rights crowd start piping up about an 18- year-old being a young woman and having a mind of her own, do me a favour.

Young women these days may look a lot older than they did 20 or even 10 years ago.

But that doesn't mean they're ready to face up to the physical and mental changes a surgeon's knife can make overnight.

Plastic surgery is the new slimming pill fad in Ireland.

And we need to put a minimum age limit of at least 23 years on it.