Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)

What has been done with regard to tax credits is appalling. They have been cut by 10%, as the Minister for Health and Children has outlined. This is more than the percentage cut to ministerial pensions. A tax credit applied to carers, who save the taxpayer an average of €40,000 per year. We are not giving them basic recognition in the taxation system. Given the anomalies in the respite care grant, the tax credit is the only recognition some carers receive. That recognition is now being reduced by the proposal before us.

People with a disability and those who are visually impaired incur additional costs in going to work, and have a low rate of employment in any event. The visually impaired have additional costs in making adaptations to allow them to live independently or to get to and from work. It does not make sense to penalise the small number of people who avail of this tax credit, which will be the effect of the proposed measures.

The lowest cut of all is the reduction in the tax credit for a widowed person in the year of assessment. In the year when a person loses his or her spouse, we are cutting their tax relief by 10%, which is greater than the cut to the pensions of Ministers who will be leaving Government in a few months time.

I ask the Minister for Health and Children to justify these measures and explain why she, if she decides to retire, should be entitled to less of a cut than a widowed person in the year they become widowed. This is unacceptable, as is the cut in tax relief to someone looking after an incapacitated child. Some 64% of children with a disability must remain at home, saving the taxpayers €70,000 per year.

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