Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Deputy McGrath is correct. I referred to that point in my own definition of the conditions for the home care tax credit and it is made clear on the website of the Revenue Commissioners.

Turning to Deputy Doherty's question regarding defining "permanently incapacitated by reason of mental or physical infirmity", it is defined, according to the Revenue Commissioners, in practice by the ability or inability of a citizen to maintain themselves or look after themselves. This is clear in the operation of the home care tax credit. In my involvement in debates on the home care tax credit to date, that particular issue has not been identified as a potential reason for the non-drawdown of this tax credit. My expectation is that there is enough clarity regarding what that means because in the many debates on this issue to date, this has not been raised as an issue. It may have been raised, however, with the Deputy The reason for that tends to relate to the issue mentioned by Deputy McGrath. The other issue I have identified and raised is that the income threshold for citizens availing of this tax credit is low compared with the average. This credit, therefore, is not of as much use as we might think when looking at the ability of people to access it.

Regarding the cost of allowing refunds on unused income tax credits, as highlighted by Deputy Burton, this matter has been looked at because it has been called for on several occasions by different working groups involved in this debate on how we support low-income citizens. The last time it was looked at was in 2009. The Revenue Commissioners indicated that the cost of doing this would be approximately €2 billion per annum and I have not been given any reason to expect that figure has changed. The Revenue continues to maintain that there would be considerable difficulties with the technical implementation of this measure.