David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)

I thank the office of the Ceann Comhairle for giving me permission to raise this matter. We speak much in the house about active citizenship. St. Patrick's Hospital Fundraising Association in Fermoy is an example of active citizenship in practice. It recently purchased 12 new safe patient mobilisation beds at a cost of €53,000. These beds have made a huge difference to the patients in the hospital and assist the staff in further enhancing the already high quality of care. It is without doubt that all of the hard work that goes into fundraising for local hospitals such as Fermoy greatly benefits the patients, most of whom are elderly.

All of this money was donated by the local community for the association, which is a registered charity. It is estimated that the association in Fermoy has raised over €100,000 between 2006 and 2009 in order to purchase appliances and equipment. Recently, a 30-bed unit was built at the community hospital in Fermoy and the association contributed €460,000. There is no doubting the very valuable and hard fundraising work that is carried out by people like those in Fermoy. Other groups in my constituency, such as those in Youghal, Midleton, Cobh and Mallow also have worked and continue to work very hard fundraising on a voluntary capacity to raise funds to purchase much needed equipment for their local community hospitals in order to support front line services. I am sure it is the same all over the country. Not one cent is wasted, unlike money in the charge of many State agencies, examples of which are well known.

To come back to the purchase of the safe patient mobilisation beds, costing €53,000, the Minister for Finance showed his gratitude to the people of Fermoy by charging VAT to the tune of 21.5% on the purchase. The Minister has set a threshold of €25,390 on each individual item in order to qualify for relief under the VAT refund order, SI 58/92. Even though the beds were one order, the purchase does not qualify for the relief because the refund only applies to medical equipment costing in excess of €25,390. The Minister charged a VAT bill on the purchase of €11,000. Imagine all the cake sales and raffles that had to be held in order to raise €11,000 simply to hand it over to the Minister. Imagine what could have been done in the hospital with that money, which was raised on a voluntary basis.

I call on the Minister to consider doing two things. First, he should reduce the threshold, and there is an opportunity to do this in the Finance Bill. Second, he should consider the purchase of items such as these beds as one item so that the VAT relief can be allowed to the voluntary association. This would encourage groups to continue to raise more money. It will save the State in the long run and do much good for those in real need in our communities. If the Government is really serious about active citizenship, it should encourage this kind of active citizenship on the ground, which is happening as we speak. I await the Minister of State's reply. I hope this will not end here but will go further. Perhaps we can do something constructive on this matter.

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