Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I was late to the debate as I was speaking to the protestors outside Leinster House who work in this sector and are very concerned about these proposals. My Irish Solidarity-People Before Profit colleague Deputy Gino Kenny has worked on this issue in more depth than I have. I am interested in hearing the Minister's response to the points we have raised, particularly in respect of those cases where doctors have said certain supplements may be of benefit on an ongoing basis to maintain people's health against certain conditions from which they suffer or are recovering. To impose this additional cost on the persons concerns does not seem to be a good idea. Surely we want to encourage people to look after their health and well-being? It is difficult to see how we can demarcate the line between food supplements and foods without ending up on the wrong side of it in many cases and unfairly taxing products that should be treated as foods.

On a lighter note, I am big fan of Bob Marley whose biography details how he visited Ireland many years ago in great anticipation of enjoying huge helpings of his favourite food - a type of seaweed called Irish moss - only to discover that it was not for sale in shops here. I am almost certain that one can get it these days in precisely the types of shop we are discussing. This is something that for Bob Marley and many others in Jamaica was a food, indeed a very healthy food. However, one is likely to find it for sale here only as a food supplement which will be treated differently from food for VAT purposes. The same taxation regime will apply to many other products, such as fish oil which may be described as supplements. That is a mistake. It will be detrimental to people's health in some cases if they can no longer afford the products, as well as being damaging to the small businesses that produce and sell them. I am very sympathetic to the amendment.

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