Is it just me or is mcdonalds salt tastier than normal salt?

Lol, comment of the week, brilliant! ;-)

@Creamy, its the msg in the food that makes ANYTHING tastier

Haha I thought I was the only one who did that.

Would SJI just butt out ,please? I have never heard such rubbish. Biting lower incomes with increased USC? Are they mad? Stick to religion ! You are better at that than economics , and that is not saying much.

Or on reports commissioned by Ministers [come back Martin].

Wait , how about a 100% tax on politicians expenses. Now that’s an idea. Plus an admin charge.

Great idea taxing the junk food my wife might actually stick to a diet for a change!!

Hw about a 100% tax on politicians expenses

I second that……

No sugar for you tonight Ken.

Thanks for worrying Joe but I don’t need sugar, I got my honey!

hey Ken, I would love to see you saying that to her face lol

Who decides what is junk food though? McDonalds in moderation is fine – plus McDs are one of the biggest buyers of Irish beef in Europe. Also, in Ireland, it doesn’t have the additives that have given it a bad name in the US. So-called Low-Fat processed foods are are full of chemicals with little or no nutritional value!

Give me a Big Mac any day – at least it is real food.

Gerri, when McDonalds say their burgers are 100% Irish beef they mean that the beef is 100% Irish not that the burger is 100% beef. Plenty of crappy additives go into McDonalds’ burgers.

McDonalds is not nutritious on any planet. Food should be assessed for its chemical content, nutritional content, fat content, sugar content and overall effect on your health and tax graded as such. Then tax breaks should be given to producers of non refined or low refined healthy produce to ensure affordability.

Sorry Barry and Diarmaid, that is not actually true. Mc Donalds stopped using the ‘pink slime’ some time ago. There was a recent study in Ireland on the contents of burgers and McDs were found to contain just beef and seasoning (mainly salt). Sorry I can’t remember who carried it out but it was reported on radio. There was a dietitian who said that as the burger in the bun had protein, fat and carbohydrate, it was actually quite a balanced meal. There was no evidence of chemicals or nasty additives.

OMG you heard it on the radio so it must be true! Not even the best burgers on the market can be 100% beef. You need to add breadcrumbs or other agent to dry the beef or it’ll fall apart when cooking. especially if it has been frozen as freezing mince turns it to slush. Egg whites are often used as a binding agent. So IG McDonald’s burgers are actually 100% beef then they must have cattle that produce beef unlike any other cattle in the world. And if you actually try a McDonalds burger without any sauces etc you’ll notice they actually don’t taste like beef and have a texture like tofu.

There has been a wealth of studies done that show McDonald’s is not in any way healthy. Just Google it. Unless the reason you are being so defensive is because you work for them?

Gerri, I don’t know if you work for McD’s or what but I too heard that interview, to the best of my recollection it was on the Moncrieff show on Newstalk. That woman was comparing the burger to a low nutrition snack, she wasn’t comparing it to a healthy food. In any event I never argued against the meat in a burger, I do think when you factor in all the other ingredients in a Big Mac for example, that’s when it starts being unhealthy on top of what other food items are cooked in. No one ever walks into McDonalds and buys a beef burger with no bun, sauce, sides or drink, well I’ve never seen it anyway. Suggesting McDonalds is nutritious is frankly ludicrous, perhaps we should talk to a few cardiologists to get their thoughts?

Now Barry, there is no need to be patronising. No, I do not work for McDonalds. I make my own burgers all the time and you don’t need to add breadcrumbs or egg white to them. I also keep mince in the freezer and it does not turn to slush! Actually breadcrumbs and egg whites are not chemicals additives so I wouldn’t actually have a problem with them.

Diarmaid, it was a programme on RTÉ – nearly sure it was Pat Kenny. But that is not important. I agree the sauces and drinks are definitely not healthy but my original point was: who decides what is junk food for the benefit of this tax? McDs is the usual suspect but in fact other so-called healthy foods are worse offenders. Look at the ingredients list on a packet of cereal. Sugar is usually very high up that list.

@ Barry. McD’s use a good brand of beef burger. its actually one of the more expensive brands. wether its 100% irish or not, is debatable but it is 100% BEEF

Are you sure it was on RTE? I thought I heard it on Newstalk. In any event, I couldn’t agree with you more, 99% of cereals are total crap, you’d be better off eating the box for nutrition than the cereal in it. I am not trying to single out McD’s for unfair treatment. 90% of the stuff in your local supermarket is muck. Therein lies the problem and why I believe this is necessary, if that makes sense? Kids should be eating porridge, veg, unrefined meat etc not cheese strings, coco pops and chicken nuggets. If financial restraints have to be introduced to discourage so be it!

Diarmaid, now we are singing from the same hymn sheet!

Lou, you are 100% right about the beef content and in addition, 1 in every 4 McD’s burgers sold in Europe is made from Irish beef. McDs are actually important for the Irish economy – I know that’s totally off topic but interesting, I think!

Good points Gerry, McD’s beef is of quite a high quality, is sourced in ireland and if its advertised as 100% beef, it cannot be anything else. its actually the sauces, buns and cheese that raise the fat and sugar contents. A fat tax will not affect McD’s, or any other fat food providers. It’s the customer that always pays. Incidentally, nobody ever mentions BK when talking about unhealthy foods. A double standard?

This then begs the question how do you introduce a fat tax into a market which is heavily distorted by consumer marketing? Only last week was the revelation of the Tesco “Low Fat” yogurt. Low in fat yes, but the calorie count was huge!

Gavin you have answered your own question there. The whole point is to make the customer pay, a tax should be a disincentive to purchase, therefore less business for the business leading to them having to produce healthier food products. I don’t believe it should stop at fat content, as you’re bang on with your other point. The tax should take in a wider spectrum of health effects.

Exactly !!! Always !always !the sweet things are cheaper then the healthy option , notice when the new school term starts for instance all the shops and supermarkets pack the shelves near the tills with 3 for 2 offers on chocolate bars or crisps.

The best part is, you’ll be putting in corrupt politicians to make health decisions and then wonder why the childhood obesity rates are rising.

Good intentions and flawed logic, the left at its finest.

Oh god Michael, can we just have one grown up debate where a political ideology isn’t the focus of the argument and rather the problem of childhood obesity etc is!? Nice sweeping generalisation there too assuming you know my political leanings, btw, you’re utterly wrong in those assumptions too.

Here comes the dramatics. I’m merely alerting you to what will happen. We as a people want cheap food, and then child obesity gets worse. How many ways do you want your cake?

I honestly don’t care about your political leanings, I’m just telling you like it is.

Also interesting to note that you don’t disagree with the logic either

Dramatics? What are you on about? Of course I disagree with you, you’re talking out your hat.

The number of text messages sent per year is increasing despite the recent popularity of alternatives. I don’t think it’s a terrible idea for a tax tbh.

We already pay tax on SMS. It’s called VAT.

@mart_n. The reason SMS usage has remained so high is that the majority of mobile users have free texts or have a payment plan which gives them so many hundred free sms per month, the instant they’re is a charge associated with SMS, mobile users will switch to free alternatives like BBM, IM, email

Technically you don’t pay tax on text messages. You pay it for the overall product/service. That’s like saying you don’t need a TV license because you payed VAT on the TV itself.

The amount of moaning that goes on here about regressive taxation etc, and when some new ideas for a minimal and progressive tax are floated they are immediately shot down. What do people want?!

@mart_m. If you’re Bill Pay subscriber you pay percentage VAT on all your service usage SMS/VOICE/DATA

Well mart, my bill shows the SMS price ex vat and the price inc vat. I also pay vat on the phone calls, data plan and usage plan. If you have a PAYG phone and send an SMS then the price deducted from your credit is inc vat.

This one is the way to go. How can these parasites get paid for years for a job they stopped doing (as if they did the job well in the first place). Let them have the same pension rules as the ordinary man.

“effect” should read affect

Good point.

Surely the tax would be on mobile operators? It’d be up to them whether or not they pass the cost on to consumers.

that’s called a water charge, best option is to collect rainwater in buckets to flush the toilet….

my thoughts exactly, Robert.

They could say they’ll increase corporation taxes by 2.5%, but no : there has to be a “levy of 2.5 per cent on all corporate profits”, just to show how nasty corporate profits are.

Punitive taxation is for moralising nanny-staters, not economists.

Why not add a fart tax.. Or maybe thats a renewable.

@Joe

Yeah I thought of that one Joe, but that would involve metering people’s arses and it would take a couple of years to roll out those meters which would cost the government more in the long run so it would be a no go.

Poor people eat more junk food? A few carrots and small bag of baby potatoes are half the price of a box of Birds Eye refined reformed crap filled chicken nuggets. I really can’t see your point! Good healthy food, like Veg and Fruit are far far cheaper than muck in the freezer section.

Ps. I agree with all your other points.

Peter, you’re not even comparing like with like; you’re comparing a ‘meat’ with a vegetable and a carb. And you’re comparing a name brand with an own brand.

A better comparison would be, can you buy 500g of lidl chicken nuggets for cheaper than 500g of lean chicken? No.
Can you buy 1kg of tesco own brand frozen chips for the same prize as 1kg of potatoes? You sure can’t.

Do the poor eat more junk food? Absolutely, they do, because they have to to make ends meet.

This one just brings forward tax revenue from future pensions into current current tax revenue and will also have the effect of leaving mire people reliant on the state pension in future, putting more strain on the government finances.

He went to college, educated by teachers in the Dail and has an Art Degree in the Dept. of finance!

Yes, just like the extortionate tax on alcohol has done wonders for the HSEs finances

If a tax stopped people eating junk food I would be very surprised. The best way of saving billions is education about nutrition and how to cook it.

I agree some benifets are given to the well off that don’t need it. it’s never progressed instead the poor take the hit and Irish children go to bed hungry.

I just use my payslip.

Too much detail, post it to your local TD afterwards?

Can’t afford the stamp! :)

So in addition to the charge the bank makes each time they allow me access my own money, I have to pay tax on it as well? I already paid income tax on it!!!

Do you realise what this would do to the liquidity and financial markets? Or how many people you’ve just unemployed with this tax?

And kiss goodbye to all the IFSC jobs when they are relocated to a country without the transaction tax.

why no tax everything until we are all poor while them %#&*@ at the top get 5k a month for travel kip of a country its gone

Raise the USC!!!!!
C’mon to f::k. Are they serious. So once more those of us working are to be targeted.
Last I checked I paid over 4k in USC last year. And what did it do, paid AIB unsecured bonds today. You can’t get any more from this stone. Property tax and water charges next year. Where’s my social justice. I’m willing enough to pay towards services in this country once I can see it spread more evenly.
Do I have a medical card. No.
Do I get mortgage subsidy. No.
Do I receive rent allowance. No.
Free child care. No.
Single parent allowance. No. And I don’t want them.
Ah the list is endless.
Of course I’m opening myself up to an onslaught of abuse, but I have been a net contributor to this state, never took one cent in welfare. Their are many people who are recently unemployed and I do certainly believe they should receive help, but their are also those that feel a sense of entitlement who have scrounged their whole lives. They deserve zero in my opinion.
Place red thumb here..

I don’t agree with taxing everything but this tax is the lesser of two evils. I’d rather a tax on junk food than child benefit slashed. i get ur point on the fat cats at the top but it’ll take a revolution before they cut their own money!

boildyeggs.

You’ve displayed the sentiment of the silent majority. I couldn’t agree more.

How can you charge a third of a cent? Last I checked the lowest acceptable denomination is a cent and that’s not even accepted in some EU countries.

NIall, If the average texter sends about 30 texts a day it amounts to about 36euro a year. How do you propose the Operators charge for this? Add it on top of the monthly bill? And what about that the majority of Irish mobile subscribers are pre-pay with no contract, How do you propose to charge these? Also we’re already paying VAT on our Mobile phone bills, its a double tax!

Eh jason, I dont know what back youre from from or the people thumbed your comment but I see it every day. Look at any petrol station or any currency exchange. Just beause you physically have it in your hand doesnt mean you dont deal in fractions of cents all the time.

That many mistakes in that comment Im not going to even bother correcting it.

How about some concrete proposals? How are these corporations “greedy”? It’s us that give them our money by supplying the goods and services we use every day.

the more we tax the more the government grows, and starts telling the fattys to go on diets because they are costing them a fortune. Social welfare is a ponsy scheme waved infront of the poor in order to buy the vote … the government over spends and puts more people into poverty

Really? The high tax on cigarettes does not deter people from smoking.

So can you qualify what “Junk Food” is? Do you think these companies will stay in business if you raise their prices? Are you going to contribute to their social welfare?

Both ideas are horrible. Children’s allowance only drives up the cost of school products and uniforms.

More good intentions and less logic.