Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Senator Conway-Walsh and I are not always on the same page but we certainly are so on this issue. One of the changes provided for in the Finance Bill is the imposition of the 13.5% rate of VAT on food supplements. This provision was discussed at great length during the passage of the Bill through the Dáil. It was also discussed extensively at the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach, of which Senators Kieran O'Donnell, Conway-Walsh, Paddy Burke and I are members, as was the Minister of State before he was elevated to higher office. That committee heard in detail from representatives of the health food sector, at which time the Minister announced that a review would be undertaken. The Revenue Commissioners subsequently announced, on 1 March, that various food supplements would be charged at the 23% VAT rate. Thanks to political pressure from my party and others, that decision was postponed until 1 November 2019.

In the meantime, the Taoiseach referred to food supplements as snake oil, which was unhelpful and served to discredit the many positive health benefits of those supplements. Many people, including the elderly and pregnant women, have achieved healthy outcomes from using food supplements. I am not saying that every supplement or every product that purports to be a supplement is fantastic, but many of them are very helpful. This move will serve to increase the cost of living for people and runs counter to positive health policy.

We will continue to raise the matter with the Minister on the basis that we are all agreed that some of these products offer benefits. With so many people using food supplements, there is a possibility that some of them, if they can no longer afford the products, could end up ill in an emergency department. If those people end up in a hospital bed, even for one night, it will add up to a significant demand on resources.There is a false economy in what we are trying to do here. I appreciate that the rate of VAT on food is 0% and food supplements are effectively a form of food. They supplement food. This is a relatively short-sighted measure, which is unhelpful for public policy, the improvement of health and keeping people in this State as healthy as they can be. People are going out and trying to be healthier. Some will probably still do so and suck up the price increase but others may decide they cannot afford the increased cost. On that basis they will get sick and end up in hospitals or accident and emergency departments with poor health outcomes that would be far more costly to the State than allowing a VAT rate of 0% on food supplements. This recommendation seeks for a new report to be laid before the Oireachtas on the treatment of food supplements and whether they can still be zero-rated, within three months of the passing of the Bill. I do not expect the Minister of State to accept the recommendation but it would be worthwhile if he did so.