Budget 'must not add to cost of weekly shop'
The Food and Drink sector has warned that measures in the Budget that increase grocery prices will damage prospects for recovery in the domestic economy and put jobs at risk.
Food and Drink Industry Ireland warned that the introduction of a sugar tax on certain drink products would have no health benefits and would further hit "already hard-pressed" consumers.
FDII Head of Consumer Foods Shane Dempsey said: "The Budget has a pivotal role to play in supporting the very fragile recovery in consumer confidence. It is vital that no taxes are introduced that would push up the cost of the weekly shop.
"To tackle unemployment we need to increase spending in the domestic economy. New taxes will have the opposite effect.
Mr Dempsey said that there was no evidence to support claims that a sugar tax will help tackle obesity.
He said: "The Danish Government recently announced it was withdrawing a saturated fat tax after one year and was also scrapping proposals for a sugar tax because of concerns about inflation, cross-border trade and the risk to jobs.
"In 2008/9 Ireland lost over €500 million in cross-border shopping, which led to significant job losses across the food sector. Any measure that would encourage the return of cross-border shopping should be avoided.
"Across the EU, OECD and the World Health Organisation there is general agreement that solving the international problem of obesity requires a whole of society effort and that isolated initiatives such as discriminatory taxation will not succeed."
