Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I join in welcoming all our guests here this morning. They will appreciate that two minutes will not allow me to go into all of this in any great depth. I noted a number of points in the Irish Heart Foundation submission. The Department of Public Health at the University of Oxford estimates that a 10% additional tax on sugar-sweetened drinks would reduce the number of obese adults by approximately 10,000. I support the case and the point. People will challenge it in discussion and debate.

How do they do that and what methodology is employed? It is a difficult thing to quantify. The only supportive evidence for it was the information that suggests the public is sensitive to price. In terms of winning the case, those of us who are open to making the argument need to have more information so that we can be of help. It is not enough for us to be supportive in broad commentary. It would be helpful if we had an idea of how the impacts were assessed.

Mr. Macey drew an important link between the additional drink tax and the flip side of the coin, that is, the subsidy. We want people to think about subsidising fruit and vegetables in order to make them more affordable and attractive, and to encourage parents to explore the variety of good food options. That is a welcome idea which I would endorse.

The committee recently discussed the issue of the tobacco market. I acknowledged on that last occasion that to the best of my knowledge there are no differences among the members of this committee, across all parties and none, in our intentions regarding the impact of the tobacco industry on the health of the citizenry. Ms O'Meara referred to the appointment of a tobacco regulator with the purpose of curbing the excessive profits of the industry in Ireland and suggested that such an approach could yield up to €65 million for the Exchequer. I am interested in the details of her proposal. We are given a figure of €65 million but we need to be able to make an argument in support of it. She also proposed an adjustment of the structure of the tobacco tax to ensure that when it is increased it benefits the Exchequer rather than the tobacco industry. I ask her to explain how the tobacco tax has benefited the industry.

Her submission contained a staggering fact on tobacco smuggling which merits the attention of the media at large. The submission claims that 87% of smuggled tobacco products come from the legal industry. I am not challenging her to substantiate the claim because I am buying it straight off and I can only deduce that the tobacco industry is in some way complicit in utilising certain countries and markets in order to enter supply chains in Ireland, Europe and elsewhere via the back door. That issue needs to be highlighted and addressed because it is a serious charge. I do not doubt that it is the case. The industry has a serious case to answer.

I apologise to other speakers that I cannot respond to all of their contributions. I have made note of their points and questions and I thank them most sincerely for their time. What they have given us in written format is very important and welcome.