John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Macey for coming. I am on the Joint Committee on Health as well. We will try to get him in there too as this is a broad debate and I was very taken with some of the questions Deputy Conway-Walsh asked. Mr. Macey can see that we take a different perspective given we are concerned with budgetary oversight. It is not that we are not interested in the health aspect of it, but there are hard questions to be asked around it.

Mr. Macey talked about reducing the sugar, but I suppose we are replacing the sugar. I do not see a less-sweetened content to any of the products he is talking about. Is the jury out on replacing sugar with whatever? I am interested in his comments on that.

There will also always be the arguments that this is the nanny state and people will say they can drink what they want and consume what they want. A conversation like this is useful, therefore, for demonstrating the virtuous circle, namely, saying to people that if they keep consuming this it has a greater societal cost aside from the personal cost and may end up increasing their personal health costs over time. It may result in increasing their health premiums or PRSI contributions because so many more people are consuming this that it is beginning to create an exponential burden on the health system. Those connections sometimes are not made.

I will home in on one or two questions. In essence, our Department of Health has not completed and published an evaluation of the impact of the sugar-sweetened drinks tax in the almost five years since its introduction whereas the UK has, despite only introducing the tax three weeks earlier. Will Mr. Macey tell us what the UK found, in brief?