Mary Ann O'Brien (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and wish him good fortune in his new ministerial position. Previous speakers have made many of the points I wished to make so I will go straight to a point that has not been made which I would like everybody here to consider seriously.

We have all become very exacting consumers. We like to know what we are going to eat and value our health above anything else in this world. Thus the food industry has become very transparent and food labelling has become an onerous task for food manufacturers. I am a manufacturer and I welcome this, because my product is a natural one. However, I am amazed that in 2012, no food labelling is required for whiskey, cider, beer or wine. EU regulations do not force our alcohol producers to label their products.

I would like to read some items of interest. EU regulations allow for more than 50 different flavourings, additives, preservatives and agents to be added to wine. Only sulphites, which are used as preservatives and have a possible causal link to asthma, must be listed on wine labels. I cannot pronounce the names of half the additives and flavourings, etc., allowed - which sound terrifying - but I believe that if I read them out, the Minister of State will never touch wine again.

Isinglass is something that comes from the bladder of a fish. Others include copper sulphate, diammonium phosphate, thiamine hydrochloride, lysozyme, dimethyl dicarbonate, bentonite and potassium ferrocyanide. I did not make this up. Why are we not asking the drinks industry to put labels on wine. I bet that one of us in here is coeliac. There are 12,000 coeliacs in Ireland. God help those who are coeliacs, because people who are coeliac cannot drink beer, lager, stout or ale, because they all contain various amounts of gluten. However, if one is obese or overweight, one can have cider, wine, sherry, spirits, port and liqueurs. How many calories are in a bottle of wine? I do not have a clue and I am sure the Minister of State does not know either.

Deputy Martin made a profound statement with regard to stopping us smoking. Please let us be the first country in Europe to put labelling on alcohol. This might add something to the costs for suppliers, but it will certainly provide a much better choice to consumers, because some very unhealthy additives are being added to many products.

I apologise for being so unprofessional and standing up again, but I would like to make a quick final point that is of relevance in the run-up to the children's referendum. We know the children's allowance is going to be changed. I implore the Minister, Deputy Burton, to turn the children's allowance into food and clothes stamps. Some children's allowance moneys are being spent as if they were alcohol stamps. We all know that is happening. I ask the Minister of State to write that one down. It is an easy win. We need to make sure our children's money is being spent on food and clothes for them.