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THE UNIVERSAL SOCIAL Charge will not be abolished if Fianna Fáil are successful in the next general election.
The party leader Micheál Martin said that “false promises” were made in the last election by Fine Gael that they would abolish the USC.
“That was never going to happen because the money was never there to do that. And I said [that] to people on the doorstep,” he said.
“It will not be abolished in the next five years either. Because if you want to do more in housing and if you want to deal with health and climate change” it will require increased expenditure, he said.
“We have to be honest with people,” he said.
The USC was first mentioned back in 2010 in the wake of the crash.
The then Minister for Finance, Fianna Fáil’s Brian Lenihan, replaced the income levy and health levy with the USC.
The taxpayer was led to believe it was an emergency, temporary tax, imposed to see us through the dark days.
In 2013, Fine Gael made some changes to it by raising the entry point, but many were left scratching their heads as to why the USC wasn’t scrapped.
Instead of getting rid of it, as was promised, the government has been tweaking the tax, with no sign of it being binned anytime soon.
Martin said it is important in the run up the election that the public are told the truth about what is achievable.
“What stunned me with the British election was both parties for promising billions and billions and billions… I mean, I think we’re hopefully going away from that in Ireland,” he said.
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Currently running at 10% don’t know, 90% feel qualified to make a decision after reading a four-line article.
Im not qualified in nutrition or physiology or pharmacology etc., my opinion should be irrelevant.
I take 10,000 units a day with my usual medication for MS (RDA is like 600) and feel fantastic. Regular blood tests show absolutely no sign of hyperglycemia or anything else. Some very interesting data out there thus far.
*hypercalcemia
Hi Titus,
Just a thought, if you grow your own in pots or in a bed, you can add them to every dish.
Vitamin D is richly found in natural herbs such as alfalfa, carrot, eyebright, fenugreek, grains, mullein, nettle, chickweed, dandelion, horsetail, lemongrass, lettuce, oatmeal and parsley, check out http://www.kilcannon.ie/herbs-grow-your-own-from-seed/ they are adding herbs that are rich in flavor for cooking but more importantly for health benefits.
I’ve been taking 5,000 units for several years. I used to get a bad cold and chest infections every year. It often took a month to shake them off. Now it’s rate I get an infection.
rare
@Titus Groan: If people want to take it then fine. But don’t lace my food with it against my will!
Lace? Your food is already “laced” with………….food.
@James Xenophon: Too muchVit D can cause gall and kidney stones…
Alois, it’s the opposite as far as I can see. Vitamin D deficiency caused gall stones.
@William Grogan: It is a bit mad as that is what they use to say, too much phosphorus in the diet is to blame as well but who knows what they will say next, as now Vit E is bad for the heart???
It depends on the person , most foods are fortified with vitamins and that is not as good as it sounds. Ireland has a huge problem with Haemachromatosis (too much iron in your blood) and it is a real threat to our health services. Most cereals are fortified with iron as are most yogurt’s & breads and that causes a spike in ferritin levels which can cause ferritin buildup in joints , liver etc. Any fresh veg that has naturally occurring levels like cabbage, broccoli , sprouts etc are perfect. It’s basically same with vitamin D. A UVA/UVB bulb will help with SAD and lack of sunlight. I’m not a nutritionist or medic of any kind but I am a type 2 diabetic and inherited Harmachromatosis from my late Mum & Dad who were carriers. If you feel lacking in Vit D then I highly recommend chatting to your health professional before bombarding your system with artificially created vitamins.
Yes. I’m too lazy and stupid to eat a balanced diet, so it’s the gubbermunt’s job to force Big Food to put all the nutrients I need into junk.
@Ben considering the main source of vitamin D comes from sunshine which we get very little of its nothing to do with people being lazy and stupid. You can get small amounts from oily fish which if you don’t eat daily you will still be lacking. The only way of getting enough is by supplements or buying food products fortified with it. Perhaps you should have done a little research before calling people lazy and stupid!!!
It’s not as simple as that. We don’t get enough sunlight in this country for our skin to produce enough vitamin D, even with healthy diets. Factor in working in offices, commuting home, winter daylight hours etc and you can see why something more has to be done.
As a nation we have a higher than average number of people deficient in this vitamin, my missus is on vit d prescribed by the doctor.
People should be encouraged to Eat a balanced diet including lots of oily fish during the winter, more than three times a week and they will get all the vit d that they need.
Far better than further processing foods.
I agree in principle John, but in reality people are simply not going to eat that much fish.
Do we really need fortified foods is a better question.
@cryptoskitzo: In a welfare state, the taxpayer needs public health measures like fortified food in order to reduce the cost of treating future health problems that fellow citizens will otherwise suffer from.
Just add it to the coffee in machines and 1/4 of the population will be sorted
Sure add a little sunshine while their at it. “Fortified with added sunshine”.
I’m 42 and have been diagnosed with osteoporosis due to a medical condition, however vitamin D and calcium go hand in hand, but people’s diets now a days don’t supply all the vitamins required, especially picky eaters so therefore food which can be fortified with vitamins and minerals should be fortified.
No. people should learn to eat a balanced diet. All the nutrients and vitamins we need are already there naturally. Education id all we need not further chemical products added to our foods.
This is one of those articles where context is missing. In the UK, rickets and other health problems due to extreme vitamin D deficiency in pregnant women and children has made a comeback in the last few decades after being almost eradicated since Victorian times. That’s the real reason why there is a push to supplement foods with vitamin D.
The widespread use of sunscreen at all times is part of the problem. So is an unmentionable problem involving variation in your skin’s ability to create vitamin D from sunshine depending on the pigment in your skin, the strength of sunlight at your latitude and whether you cover almost all of your skin all year round or not. That’s why the UK now provides free vitamin D supplementation in many low income communities.
That kind of extreme vitamin D deficiency is what costs health services a fortune to treat the consequences of.
“A quarter of infants – more in some areas – are deficient in vitamin D and the report calls on ministers to consider making free vitamins available to all under-fives….
…ince the late 1990s hospital doctors have been finding infants with heart failure, fits caused by low calcium levels, delays in walking and rickets. These conditions are all caused by low levels of vitamin D. The vitamin is crucial to the body’s use of calcium. Low levels of vitamin D cause muscle weakness. In growing toddlers calcium cannot be moved into bones, causing these to become soft, their cartilages swollen. A child with rickets is typically miserable, weak and late to walk. His or her legs are often bowed, the wrists swollen and tender. Problems develop with dental enamel too, leading to a higher rate of cavities in later life.”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/25/childhood-rickets-vitamin-d
“However only 10 per cent of our vitamin D comes from diet: exposure to sunlight is the body’s most effective way of absorbing the vitamin, and a lack of sunshine is thought to be behind the modern incarnation of rickets…
…In January, the government recommended that vitamin D supplements be taken by all pregnant and breastfeeding women, children aged six months to five years, people aged 65 and over, people with darker skin, as well as those who cover up for cultural reasons…
…In recent years, there has been an increase in cases of rickets in the UK, mainly among children of Asian, African-Caribbean and Middle Eastern origin. They are at a higher risk because their skin is darker and they need more sunlight to get enough vitamin D.
“Some ethnic minorities may have a poor intake of vitamin D on top of that. For example vegetarians are at higher risk, as well as those who cover their skin, and a lot of Muslims fit into both those categories,” Dr Greening told Channel 4 News. “Babies who are born to mothers with a vitamin D deficiency are also more at risk. And additionally, the milk they get from the mother will be lacking.”
https://www.channel4.com/news/how-rickets-is-making-a-comeback
@Marlowemallow: My wife has a condition called hyperparathyroidism which causes hypercalcemia, her body produces too much calcium. She’s already lost one kidney to this and part of the other one so adding vitamin D to her diet, however well meaning, would be very detrimental to her health. I’m sure there are others like her.
When my first son was born about 5 days later he suddenly began seizing, a horrible sight to see a tiny baby go as stiff as a board. Naturally he was rushed into intensive care where they discovered his body had no calcium, eventually they restored this imbalance but couldn’t figure it out.
A few years later when my second son was born lightning struch twice and it happened to him too, an astute doctor asked my wife permission to run a blood test on her and discovered her calcium leves were through the roof.
They surmised that the babies were recieving so much calcium in vitro that their developing bodies didn’t have to produce their own and, once born, ran out within a few days. This led to life threatening seizures. As others have said vitamin D and calcium are intrinsically linked, vitamin D is needed to absorb calcium.
John. All food is made of chemicals. You CANNOT get enough vitamin D from food.
But if my memory serves my correctly, are Vits A,D, E & K all fat soluble and as such you can overdose on them. What if I already have a balances diet with lots of Vitamins K, will I have to avoid foods fortified with Vitamins D?
@Nick Allen: I doubt it. Fortified foods would probably only have tiny amounts of vit D as the current RDA for vit D is very small
Bad questioning, if companies want to add it it is fine but should not have to add it.
@Maurice Bourke: So what about those who eat too much of certain foods, they would end up getting too much of it in their diets but there are 2 types of Vitamin D, D2 and D3 as the D2 is better for your health than the D3 but can only be found naturally in oily food like fish?
Should it not be up to the person themselves. I would perfer to be in control of what goes into my body and the quanities it do so. Big brother is watching you,and telling you what to eat and putting it in your food…
Who’s this Big Brother? Is it in your imagination?
It seems a no-brainer doesn’t it if, as the report says Vitamin D can help to reduce many of our everyday Winter illnesses with no negative side affects?
Until they find out in 20 years time that it causes boneitis!
Too much Vit D can cause calcification of arteries – yeah it’s a no brainier alright for no brainers
That is really quite rare. Quite.
@Jazz Buckler: http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/vitamins-minerals/Pages/Vitamin-D.aspx there is a good bit of information here from the NHS about VD. The likelihood of overdosing seems very slight and the positives to be got from it, would seem to outweigh that very slight risk. The fact is that if a person is going to eat huge amounts of VD enriched foods, to the extent that they are causing more harm than good, then the fact that they are over-indulging in such foods to begin with is very likely to cause other health problems anyway. I know nothing is black or white but considering the food products that contain VD and the fact that many people seem to be eating less of them and more plant based foods, also our lack of sunshine it would seem like a fairly safe bet to say that it would be beneficial to supplement our intake, moderation is the key of course though.
It needs to be taken in conjunction with Vit K2 / Nattokinase or similar – that negates any possible calcification
And Vitamin K – good for bone and blood health…
@Alanine Pipeline: Not that great, those on warfarin try to avoid it?
A brandy egg flip is nutritious. In winter, hot whiskeys with cloves and lemon contain vitamin C, and bloody marys with tomato juice contain vital iron to guard against sniffles. Who needs pharmaceutical tablet supplements? Doctors used to recommend a pint of you-know-what before punctilious advertising stipulations outlawed advertising stating same.
@Garreth Byrne: before the alcohol remedies doctors used hemp oil. Ever see the doctor showing up in the old black and white movies with his little black bag? He always had hemp oil in it (in the US anyway )
Ah yes, alcohol, the cause of AND solution to many of life’s problems.
I’ve seen clear skies whited out by jet contrails that linger and spread across the sky for hours block out the sun. Maybe the airline industry needs to clean up its act.
Yenreit it’s a bit early to be on the sauce now
Contrails are basically steam as cold air passes through a hot engine.
@Yenreit: Shhhh were not allowed talk about that.
@Yenreit: clouds block out the sun for hours and have done so above this damp rock for millions of years before us or jetplanes. Maybe God needs to clean up Its act. Admittedly, there are more clouds lately. Perhaps something to do with the water in them having been frozen until lately on the Greenland and Arctic icecaps. Perhaps you have a point wrt jeliners after all. So it’s Michael O’Leary being responsible in part for our lack of Vitamin D. Expect he’ll be charging for it soon, each time he takes us over the cloud layer.
And take the rest of crap out of the food chain
Essential for health teeth & gums as well .
If you do take a Vit D supplement, make sure it’s D3 and not just plain vitamin D, it’s much more effective and mimics the Vit D that your body make via sunlight.
Vitamin D is as essential for the body’s ability to use calcium in building and maintaining bones etc. as cement is for a block wall. We do not get enough sunlight in IRL. Therefore using SAD lamps and hoping the drug squad don’t abseil through your windows from an heat seeking helicopter or adding it via food are the options.
@John O’Driscoll: Daylight, we talking about daylight which is enough if you go out for 30 min every second day.
@IP.Man: We aren’t just talking about sunlight though. At certain times of the year in Ireland you could stand naked in the sun and get little or no Vitamin D. For example you need ultra violet b to create Vit D in your body. This only commences when the sun is 30 degrees above the horizon and this only gives you 100th the amount of Vit D as when the sun is at 90 degrees above the horizon. During the winter in Ireland you are unlikely to get any Vit D from sunlight. However, your body can store enough for between 30-60 days assuming you have adequate levels to begin with. It you are an office worker, cover most of your skin, wear suncream or stay indoors (even with sunlight streaming through the window) you probably aren’t getting enough Vit D. Many Irish people are deficient or seriously deficient and more and more Vit D is being recognised as a form of “master” vitamin as it were, with reduced levels leading to serious health problems.
Should stop spraying our skies everyday with a mass of chemicals and then we would actually see the sun and not need artificial substances
@Dick Durkin: Dick in the Northern hemisphere above a certain latitude you cannot generate Vitamin D form sunlight from October to early March. This includes Ireland. So you need to supplement or have a very good diet!
No point unless it is D3 and not synthetic.
Surely providing information to allow people choose a balanced diet is far preferable to chucking substances that some dont need or want into our food!?
Perhaps vit d tablets could be provided free of charge to anyone who for some strange reason cant include fish in their diet a few times a week.
So they will be adding real food to our nutritious diets.
Yes
@Jazz Buckler: http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/vitamins-minerals/Pages/Vitamin-D.aspx there is a good bit of information here from the NHS about VD. The likelihood of overdosing seems very slight and the positives to be got from it, would seem to outweigh that very slight risk. The fact is that if a person is going to eat huge amounts of VD enriched foods, to the extent that they are causing more harm than good, then the fact that they are over-indulging in such foods to begin with is very likely to cause other health problems anyway. I know nothing is black or white but considering the food products that contain VD and the fact that many people seem to be eating less of them and more plant based foods, also our lack of sunshine it would seem like a fairly safe bet to say that it would be beneficial to supplement our intake, moderation is the key of course though.
It is a big business selling supplements! There are enough studies showing, Vitamine supplements don’t help against cold or flu! Mixed food have everything a normal body need.
No one will pay tax voluntary but at the same time same people throw out money for waste. That’s called idiocy.
@IP.Man: A mixed diet is a meaningless term. Most people do not prepare their own foods. They are too busy working. Most people eat processed foods and most people have some level of deficiency in relation to micro-nutrients. This is also because intensive farming practices deplete the soil and damage the ability of crops to provide us with the nutrients we actually need. The mantra that we get everything we need from a good diet ignores the fact that we cannot agree what constitutes a good diet, assumes that we are all the same (we are not and there are pronounced differences) and ignores the fact that a great deal of our food is processed or otherwise denatured.
Not only that, but the whole point of Vitamin D is to help your body absorb calcium. Adding Vitamin D is a good start, but too many people either dislike dairy, shun it ‘in case it’s fattening’, or eat mainly processed foods with no calcium content at all. Your body can’t absorb what you aren’t eating.
@John R: Vitamins A,D,E,K are fat-soluble vitamins. They stored in our body for 25 days and longer. Studies shown to much Vitamins can act opposite way. But okay it is not my money flushing down the drain.
Not sure it is allowed posting links but can be an eye opener if readers use their brain too.
@IP.Man: Yeah interesting link bit low on facts and more a general diatribe against vitamin taking. Ideally if you are going to take Vitamin D you should get a benchmark such as a blood test.
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