‘People will go blind because of VAT rise’
Eye supplement to be hit by new 23% price hike
A PROFESSOR who specialises in food nutrients has spoken out against the Government’s plan to introduce a 23% VAT hike on health supplement, claiming ‘people will go blind’ because the increase will hit what he says is a sight-saving supplement. The Revenue Commissioners previously announced they are imposing 23% VAT on certain health supplements – almost double the rate on fast food burgers.
Among the supplements being hit with VAT for the first time is MacuShield – which is used to halt the progression of dry macular degeneration into the more debilitating wet eye. The condition can result in blurred or no vision in the centre of the visual field and can lead to blindness.
Speaking to RTÉ’s Liveline yesterday, Professor John Nolan said the tax hike is putting people at risk of losing their sight. He said: ‘Because of this decision, people will now probably not be able to afford this intervention [and] because of that, they will go blind when they wouldn’t have.’
Prof. Nolan, co-founder of the Nutrition Research Centre Ireland at the Waterford Institute of Technology, said he’s spent nearly two decades researching the nutrition of the eye, adding: ‘The MacuShield formula is one we tested in a very large clinical trial... With macular degeneration, at the very end stage, treatment includes these injections which are very invasive and very expensive – but that’s only for about 3% of people with this condition.
‘For everybody else, there’s nothing medical care could have done – up until now. [The Macushield formula] absolutely works.’
Health Minister Simon Harris previously said in response to a parliamentary question: ‘The prevention of age-related macular degeneration is inconclusive, and the Medicines Management Programme therefore does not recommend that products containing these preparations be reimbursed under any community drug scheme.’
Prof. Nolan said yesterday: ‘He is categorically wrong on that and let me tell you why: the biggest study ever done on this was not done in Waterford; it was done in the US... Over a five-year period, 5,000 people were followed. This study... demonstrated a 26% risk reduction in the progression of the disease.’ Prof. Nolan said if the Government made this type of intervention freely available, it could save the State €210million in over a five-year period.
Responding to a request for comment from the Irish Daily Mail, the Health and Wellbeing Unit in the Department of Health said it had expressed its concern to the Department of Finance about increasing the cost of food supplements by raising VAT. It said the Unit had not met the Heath Products Industry on this matter. Explaining the benefits of MacuShield, Prof. Nolan said: ‘Normally, what happens [with] these patients is they wait until [the condition] progresses, until they lose their vision. But during that time, [they] lose their visual... function. They lose their visual independence. What these nutrients do is they stop that process.’
Supplements have been exempt from VAT since 1972 as they contribute to public health.
PROFESSOR John Nolan, chair for Human Nutrition Research at the School of Health Science in the Waterford Institute of Technology, is a specialist on the relationship between nutrition and healthy eyesight.
On Liveline yesterday, he warned that the Government’s plan to impose 23% VAT on previously zero-rated health supplements – including MacuShield, which is important for those with macular degeneration – could lead to blindness.
The Government says the move is a response to VAT avoidance on products erroneously claimed to be health supplements, but surely we have the capacity to assess each on its own merits.
The approach adopted is akin to taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut.