Irish Examiner View: Fat-headed calories proposals

It seems an accepted truth of our time that the line between personal responsibility and the world around us and all of the known-known tripwires, unknown-unknown ones too, in it, has become absolutely blurred.

So blurred in fact that there seems a growing expectation that the the State should be a permanent, never-sleeping, 24/7 nanny looking after our every need, neutralising every last threat that might dare intrude in our lives.

This dependency, this surrender of personal responsibility is exemplified by legislation reaching the end of a public consultation process.

This legislation, if enacted, will oblige all restaurants, bars, cafes, and fast-food outlets make on-menu declarations of the calorific content of the food on offer.

On the face of it this seems a progressive health measure, especially in the face of growing obesity levels. Some well intentioned neo-Calvinists might even argue it is a welcome social measure designed to stand between a vulnerable, gullible public and a voracious food industry.

Others, probably the adults in the room, might describe it as snowflake legislation that stands where self-awareness and that quaint idea — personal responsibility — should.

The proposals have, for obvious cost reasons, been excoriated by the restaurant and hotel sectors.

If it is an exaggeration to suggest that this measure might be the straw (recyclable paper of course) that closes yet another restaurant it is probably marginally so. If we think that Irish people do not know that a double burger with cheese, a crème brûlée or, heavens forbid, a 16-inch pizza with extra toppings are fattening then we have an educational problem not a restaurant problem.

There is still time for sanity to prevail.