The possibility of introducing a "fat tax" will be examined by a new working group on diabetes which begins its work next Friday, the joint Oireachtas committee on health heard yesterday.
Last August, the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, said he was considering a special tax on fatty foods and high sugar drinks to curb growing obesity levels.
He noted that sugar levels in some soft drinks were "shockingly high" and were leading to health problems such as diabetes. Yesterday, Dr Jim Kiely, chief medical officer at the Department of Health told the health committee he would raise the issue with the working group on diabetes.
He warned that the number of people with diabetes would increase to 500,000 "in a reasonably short period of time" if current trends continued.
About 6-7 per cent of the population had the disease, with approximately 400 people dying from diabetes every year.
