Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not believe I can conduct a health policy debate here in the course of the Finance Bill. The last two contributions have been substantially about health policy in general rather than about the Finance Bill provision. I do not believe I should be expected to reply to that.

Deputy Pearse Doherty made a valid point that the incentive might be higher if people got a rebate. The justification for the way it is done is that the purpose of the tax relief is to encourage people to take out health insurance by providing a subsidy. I believe we can all agree with that. Given the relief at source is no doubt the most efficient way to give the relief, it is costly to have to give the relief individually to claimants and, especially, if people who are ill have to claim, that is another liability.

There is also another issue, that of the way in which the insurance companies behave, which the members may not have noticed. When they put the information up on their websites, they cost it without any reference to tax relief, but that has the advantage that people with no income tax liability still get their health insurance premium as if they had a tax liability. In other words, their premium costs 20% less, even though they do not have a tax liability, and that is a benefit to less well off people. When the health insurers are putting the information up on their websites, they should at least specify gross cost and net cost in order that people can note the tax relief and realise that there is a subsidy to encourage them to take out health insurance. To disguise it is to pretend it does not exist. It certainly diminishes the incentive, as Deputy Doherty rightly said, simply because many people are aware that the incentive is there.

Deputy Naughten made a fair point also, namely, that there are other moving parts, both in health policy and in the course of the budget and in other decisions, that have been taken but despite all that one of the budget announcements was that children under the age of five will have free medical services in the community - free GP care - and that cost €37 million. There are still almost 2 million medical cards in circulation. The health expenses relief is still there without a discount and it can be claimed at the standard rate of tax of 20%. If the health expenses are for maintenance in a nursing home, the claim can be made at the marginal rather than at the standard rate of tax. In addition to that, there is medical insurance relief and even though it is capped, it is still there and is of benefit to many people. It is not all one-way traffic. There are reliefs as well and new reliefs were included and other reliefs were maintained in the budget.

I am disappointed with Deputy Boyd Barrett's intervention. I would have thought that he would have been cheering for this when we take into account the ideological position he usually takes up on matters such as this one. It seems he is getting sucked into the system.