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Minister for Health Dr James Reilly wants to put calorie information on fast-food menus, and some have suggested this could be extended to all restaurants. But many restaurateurs question whether this is feasible.
In an interview with TheJournal.ie, Michelin-starred chef Oliver Dunne of Bon Appétit in Malahide explained why the proposal is “farcical”.
IF WE ARE talking about fast food restaurants, like McDonalds, no problem. But for actual restaurant businesses, it won’t work. The minister’s plan is actually laughable.
First of all, there is no one there to monitor it. To actually spend money on introducing this, and then not to monitor it just doesn’t make sense. It is a waste of people’s time and tax payer’s money.
This is how a restaurant operates. You come in that day, and you decide what should be on the menu. You see there is sea bass there, cabbage and carrots are coming in today – so that will make a nice meal. This is what happens on a daily basis.
If you have to wait for calorie counts to come in, the process would be: I would come up with a dish I want to prepare for the dinner service. Then I would have to send it away to a dietician or a nutritionist. They would have to analyse it. If I use any other ingredients – like adding ketchup maybe to create a sauce – then I would have to get onto the manufacturers of that sauce, like Heinz, so I can get the exact breakdown of the ketchup.
Heinz isn’t going to be in hurry to provide me with that information, and might even charge for it. I wouldn’t imagine you would get an accurate response back for about a month. Then that meal would be allowed on the menu.
But restaurants simply don’t operate that way. We don’t specify if we put five green beans on a plate, or if we put exactly 20g of butter in a dish.
The issue of obesity has been given as a reason to introduce this. I would argue that it is generally not obese people that go to restaurants as such. For one thing, very few of the actual population dine out regularly. Children are obese because of bad parenting – simple as that.
Healthy eating is not about eating out at restaurants. Healthy food and eating correctly is more about the portions you eat on a daily basis, or the amount of crisps or chocolate you eat while watching the TV, drinking cans of beer. That is what causes unhealthy people and obesity, not going to restaurants.
If the minister for health is proposing to spend money on this, he should be looking at spending money on education, on teaching parents and children to cook responsibly. There have been studies done by dieticians that show that some low-income families order in two or three times a week – pizza one night, Chinese food the next.
Perhaps they could look at a tax break of some sort whereby you go off and learn how to cook probably; it would save money from the health system in the long run. People simply don’t know how to cook any more.
This cannot happen, full stop. It factually cannot be achieved. They tried it in America, and they could not do it. No disrespect to Ireland, but if the United States of America tried to do this and they failed, it is just not going to work here. People are not going to spend thousands of euros out to see how many calories are in each of their dishes.
If this was implemented I don’t think it would have a huge effect on people going to restaurants. People might pay attention to it for the first couple of weeks, but then I don’t think people would even notice.
Oliver Dunne is the owner and head chef of Bon Appétit in Malahide, Co Dublin. Byline photo by James Horan/Photocall Ireland.
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Took me over six months to get the domestic grant payment. I had to chase it up constantly and everything went into them perfect. I Still haven’t got the payment from Energis 10 months later. If I owed them money that long, I would have no electricity. Why is there no fine or punishment to them for sticking the fingers up to the rest of us?
As with most grant systems only certain registered companies can be used. Then these companies charge more normally to the value of the grant.
@Craic_a_tower: Unfortunately that’s what usually happens when government subsidises a scheme or service. Suppliers take the P***. Happened years ago when government introduced a grant for central heating. Central heating installation went up by 2 grand over night.
Same with HAP. That has also driven rents up (as government won’t build):
@Fr. Fintan Stack: don’t agree on HAP and most landlords don’t and never wanted it hence they made it illegal to refuse
@Craic_a_tower: “don’t agree on HAP” – ??
So what are you saying? HAP hasn’t contributed to greed?
There’s no grant for a new build unfortunately which doesn’t make a huge pile of sense to me anyway. Will need to go without for now and hope to get them further down the road. If anyone knows any way around this, I’d love to hear.
Problem is the rip off sales people. Quoting people for things they don’t need, won’t work.
Also the price difference from different installers can’t be doubled for the same system.
I was luckily enough to get 7panels(2.5kw) for €2500 after the grant early last year. Price is almost doubled now. I’m going to DIY 4 or maybe 8 onto the shed roof next month ad seems the only affordable way at the moment.
There is a good thread on boards.ie i woild suggest anyone thinking of investing to read/post thete before committing to a purchase
@pkunzip doom2.zip: The quote I was given was 9k for mine, when I got my ducks in a row 2 months later it was 23.
@pkunzip doom2.zip: you’re right, a friend of mine, a carpenter, was quoted €15000 after the grant. He bought the panel and system from a company in Northern Iteland and installed the panels, the inverter, and cabling himself and got an electrician in to wire it up and certified it all for around the €7500 mark. Companies are ripping customers off.
I got solar panels 3 years ago and was assured I would qualify for grant. Assessor came out and said house was up to ber standard. Next day got call to say it wasn’t unless I provided information and rating for installed windows. Company I used for all new windows had gone out of business. It’s a joke.
Will housing trusts and country councils be installing panels on houses? If not why not?
@Mary Fitzsimons: they have been upgrade council owned property for years at no charge to the residents. It actually seems unfair on the neighbours who bought their properties from the council. As for trusts they are charities who try to house as many people they can but you seem to think they should provide better than people buying their own property.
Sun Arc Solar Systems do the majority of the grant work for the homeowner, I had my grant back in 6 weeks after the installation from this company.
@Charmaine ☘ Irish: Thing is, say for me as an example is the money you have to pay for the job. I wouldn’t be able to get a loan at my age to upgrade my home. Unless you have the money first go then it’s a non runner for a lot I’d imagine.
@Dave Barrett: yes, I get what your saying, if anyone had the money, it makes sense to get it as the money you have in the bank account or under the mattress wouldn’t give the same return as solar power.. it is a really sound investment.. but if your of a certain age, maybe idly might not make sense
I went with Activ8 and they did all the paper, they reduced the cost I paid them by the amount of the grant. I didn’t have to do a single thing
Overall the grant needs to be more or remove the vat from it
Like Charmaine I had my grant back in 8 weeks and the installer JM Energi Ballingeary did everything connected to the grant
I got my solar PV a year ago and the grant process was all online and almost all of it was done by the contractor, nice and simple. I put in a heat pump 6 months ago and the process was all by paper and post, involving me sending parts of forms to different people to fill in their bit and then have to wait for them to come back and send on to the next person, before collating it all to send onto SEAI. All very time consuming, slow and tedious. I don’t understand why they have different systems for different grants.
The worst part isn’t the grant process, it’s trying to get a contractor. It’s like they are interviewing the customers and deciding if you are worthy of their time. I feel sorry for anyone that has a non standard installation, as they will find very hard to get a contractor.
It’s the overall cost that is putting people off
From a domestic point of view I found it very easy and efficient. I applied and the same day they got back to me saying it was approved. Then 3 weeks after the installer sent in their paperwork the grant was paid into my account.
I got my solar PV a year ago and the grant process was all online and almost all of it was done by the contractor, nice and simple. I put in a heatpump 6 months ago and the process was all by paper and post, involving me sending parts of forms to different people to fill in their bit and then have to wait for them to come back and send on to the next person, before collating it all to send onto SEAI. All very time consuming, slow and tedious. I don’t understand why they have different systems for different grants.
The worst part isn’t the grant process, it’s trying to get a contractor. It’s like they are interviewing the customers and deciding if you are worthy of their time. I feel sorry for anyone that has a non standard installation, as they will find very hard to get a contractor.
I refurbished an old house and filled all the forms for SEAI , got BER, technical assessment fully compliant registered contractor as required. Spent €€€€ on roof, walls, floor, heat pump. Still waiting for ‘Michelle’ in SEAI to deal with my claim ……..! Complete waste of time !
This could be solved by a process that allowed the householder to sign the grant over to the installer, with a robust auditing process and the use of approved installers. That process works in other areas.
If every building had wind/solar… hmmm
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