Mr. Chris Macey:

I wish to respond to Deputy Colreavy's question about our position on fat tax. While many unhealthy foods are taxed at the standard rate, many others are anomalies and are taxed at a reduced rate. For example, the 13.5% rate applies to croissants, banoffi pie, chocolate chip biscuits, Jaffa cakes and jam doughnuts. The zero rate is applied to foods such as frozen chips, pizza and chocolate spread. We are calling for those anomalies to be removed in the next budget. In the future we will be very strong proponents of a fat tax. However, we try to base everything we do on the available evidence. We believe there are very compelling reasons for the introduction of a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages if the interests of our children are to the fore. There is some evidence about unintended consequences of fat tax, such as people may move from a high fat diet to a high salt diet. There needs to be some clarification at this point. We do not want to give industry a stick to beat us with. We are worried about the regressive elements of a fat tax which may impact on people. Further investigation is required on these points.