Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

Yes. I am not in favour of this so-called sugar tax and am not convinced by the arguments for it at all. We tabled an amendment that was ruled out of order and which we may resubmit on Report Stage. That amendment sought a report on the impact of the tax after its implementation and an assessment of how regressive it is as a tax. There has been debate and some research on so-called sugar taxes in the US which concluded that people of colour and people on low incomes were hit substantially harder by what was called the soda tax in America. I believe that would also be the case here and that this would be another regressive tax. That does not mean that I am in favour of soft drinks or soft drinks companies. On the contrary, I agree with all of the analysis that points to the major role that they play in childhood obesity in particular, but it is a question of how we deal with that. Do we impose an indirect tax which, based on evidence from the US, will overwhelmingly be passed on to consumers or do we regulate the industry by ensuring, for example, that vending machines are not allowed in schools, community centres and so forth? Do we have a ban on advertising of highly sugared drinks at sporting events, which is something that is also being discussed with regard to alcoholic drinks? Do we tax those corporations directly, which I favour, as opposed to taxing the consumers in the manner proposed in this Bill? If the Government were serious about tackling obesity, it would be looking at issues like physical education in schools. Children in primary school in Ireland only get an average of 46 minutes of physical education per week but they get two and a half hours of religious education per week. Experts recommend an increase of at least 90 minutes per week in physical education. If the Government is interested in health promotion, then it must engage in such promotion as opposed to introducing new, regressive taxes that will hit those on low incomes the hardest.