Richard Boyd Barrett warns supplement tax could harm health
Richard Boyd Barrett spoke about proposed measures that would treat many items as food supplements and the consequences of imposing extra costs on them. He argued the changes could deter people from maintaining their health, harm patients who rely on certain supplements, and damage small shops that sell them.
Main position
He said he was sympathetic to the amendment and urged the minister to respond to concerns from campaigners and workers in the sector who are protesting outside the Dáil.
Health and patient impact
He noted that doctors have recommended some products on an ongoing basis to help people recover from illnesses and maintain health, and warned that adding costs could make them unaffordable and detrimental to patients.
Food versus supplement boundary
He described difficulty in demarcating food from food supplements, arguing many items treated as supplements are effectively foods. He illustrated this with the example of Irish moss - a seaweed consumed as a food and now commonly sold in supplement shops - and mentioned fish oils as another example.
Impact on small businesses
He warned the change would damage small shops and businesses that sell and produce supplements, stressing the likely economic effects alongside the health consequences.
Request for ministerial response
He said he wanted to hear how the minister would respond to these points and reiterated his sympathy for the amendment while pressing for clarification and protection for consumers and small traders.
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I can take the discussion around a lot of those who are campaigning and protesting outside the Dáil about this, who are working in this sector, and they do feel very strongly about it, and are very concerned about it, and the Deputy Gino Kenny from People Before Profit has pursued this a bit more in depth than I have, but I would be interested to hear how the Minister responds to the point about, particularly where we're dealing with things that are about people recovering from certain illnesses, or in many cases where doctors have actually said that these things would be good on an ongoing basis to maintain people's health against certain conditions that they suffer from or are recovering from, and then to impose this additional cost on them, because that really doesn't seem like a very, very good idea. Surely we want to encourage people to look after their health and well-being, and I do find that line between food supplements and foods difficult to see how you can demarcate, frankly, without getting, in many cases, on the wrong side of the line, and unfairly taxing things that really should be treated as food. I mean, on a lighter note, I was a big fan, well, I am a big fan of Bob Marley, and I remember reading his biography, and he came to Ireland many years ago, and he was delighted coming to Ireland, because he thought he thought he was going to get huge helpings of his favourite food, which was a thing called Irish moss, which in fact is a seaweed, but they didn't sell it in the shops here, but these days you probably do get Irish moss, in precisely these sorts of shops, and it is a food, and it's a very healthy food for you, and so literally something that, in Jamaica, for Bob Marley, and for many other people, he wasn't the only person who consumed Irish moss, it was a food, but probably the only place you'd find it here, as a food, is as a food supplement, and yet we're now going to treat them differently, and I think that's actually the case with many of the things that were described as food supplements. Fish oils were mentioned as another good example, so I do think it's a mistake to do this. I think it will, in some cases, be detrimental to people's actual health, because they may feel we just can't afford these things anymore, as well as being damaging to the small shops and businesses that sell and produce these supplements. So I'd be interested to hear the Minister's response to it, but I'm very sympathetic to the amendment.
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