Cathal Berry (Kildare South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to make some brief comments on this Finance Bill and budget 2025 in general. I will focus on primary care and the tax treatment of GPs working in it. It is fortuitous that the Ceann Comhairle is in the Chair and the Minister of State, Deputy Lawless, is on the ministerial podium. I think they are familiar with the case I am about to raise. Deputy Shortall raised it earlier and I want to be associated with her comments. We all know how important primary care is. It is indispensable. It provides healthcare in the community. It acts as a gatekeeper for secondary and tertiary care and keeps people out of hospital where it is clinically appropriate. Primary care also facilitates discharge from hospital, so it takes massive pressure off the wider HSE and our hospital system in particular. As indispensable as primary care is in a normal community, it is even more important in deprived, disadvantaged and underserved areas. That is why I want to raise this case. It is about GP charities, the tax treatment of them and in particular of GP Care for All in Summerhill, Dublin. I think the Minister of State may have done a site visit and seen for himself the quality of medical care provided and how important that service is for the local community. It is a GP model charity, which means the GPs are salaried. The GMS income comes in, is given to the primary care centre and then the individual GPs are salaried. That system has worked well for the past seven or eight years. The reason it is so important is that it is very difficult to get a GP to move into a deprived area because the vast majority of patients will not be paying any fees. It does not make business sense for a GP who wants to keep the lights on and the doors open. It really requires these GP charities to function and thrive.

As a result of a circular communicated earlier this year, section 1008A of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 will be strictly enforced from 1 January 2025, which is only two and a half months from now. It leaves charity GPs like this in complete limbo with massive stress and worry. Will they be tax compliant in two and a half months' time? What will probably happen unless there is an intervention is that this incredibly important primary care GP service will have to shut down. It had actually planned to move to a second campus in Finglas, Dublin, next year. That is already on hold and the entire system could wind down. We need an intervention as soon as possible. I recognise that people involved in the GP charity have been in touch with a number of Ministers and TDs. We are all practical people here, as the Minister of State is aware, so we have solutions. The first one is that we believe GP charities should be fully exempt from this rule. If that is not possible in the next two and a half months, the second option is to at least bring in some kind of transitionary period. There should not be a cliff edge. There should be a transitionary period to allow for any regulatory change needed. There will be amendments going forward on Committee Stage of the Finance Bill in the next week or two and we ask that the Government give these amendments favourable consideration. Perhaps a meeting with the Minister, Deputy Chambers, would also be good. He is a doctor himself, from a medical family, and gets the importance of what is going on here.

I commend everybody involved in that GP facility, specifically Kevin Kenny, Amanda Farrelly and one of the trustees, Dr. Austin O'Carroll. He has a massive reputation for dealing with deprived communities and homeless people in the north inner city of Dublin. I ask the Minister of State to communicate with the various powers that be so we can give these considerations a favourable comment and a fair hearing. This is a solvable problem. This House is about writing laws, and we should be able to write laws that facilitate and support these types of GP practices rather than undermining and destroying them.

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