Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 2:

In page 7, after line 26, to insert the following: “Report on eligibility for and take up of home carer tax credit

4. The Minister shall, within 3 months of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay before the Oireachtas a report on the proportion of people who are eligible for the home carers tax credit but who are not in receipt of such a credit and ways in which the take up of the credit can be improved.”.

My amendment is on the home carer's tax credit. I acknowledge that the Minister published, on budget day, a report, which among other tax expenditures, deals with the issue of the home carer credit.

It does endeavour to address the issue I am raising here and have raised in the past, namely, the level of awareness of this credit and whether those who are entitled to it are claiming it. I know Revenue has made progress in extending this credit automatically to those who are entitled to it but I remain of the view that there are many couples who are entitled to it but are not claiming because they simply do not know about it. Page 89 of the report does seek to address that issue. It talks about the amount claimed versus the amount used. There is a difference of €47 million, which is the amount that is unused. It makes the case with regard to the explanation above, which involves couples who would be better off availing of the standard rate cut-off point for dual income couples where part of one spouse's band at the lower rate is transferred to the other spouse. Taking that into account and the data sources, which it says are different for each data set, the conclusion is that the awareness is pretty high. In my experience, there are people who are entitled to it who are not claiming it. I hope the Minister can give an update to the committee. The purpose of the amendment is really to get a discussion on it because there is a report. However, I am still of the view that there are people who are not claiming it and are not aware of it.