Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)

I thank the Minister for his response. I brought this into the Finance Bill because this is where you prompt the debate and so on. As I mentioned to his predecessor, Paschal, the intention here is for Ministers to actually start this conversation. I am not on the health committee, and there is a wider issue in terms of public expenditure.

This issue really makes sense. I do not have the data for the 344 individuals, and we only know about them in terms of home dialysis, but there are people with CAPD as well. They are entitled to this relief, which costs less than €1 million, but the HSE estimates that they are saving the HSE over €10 million, so this makes sense in the first instance.

Another issue was raised with me. As the Minister knows, these reliefs are claimed in arrears. For this year, you go through home dialysis but it is next year you can claim this. There are people out there who cannot wait, even if they are working, even if they have the tax liability and so on. The refundable tax review by the tax strategy group is way broader than what would be health-related issues, but it is possible to do something with refundable tax credits. I understand that the Government may be reluctant to go there because it opens up the door for other arguments. I would make those arguments, but anyway. I genuinely think that these health measures should be universal. You cannot have a situation where two neighbours are both availing of home dialysis and, because one is working more than the other and has a tax liability, they can get support of €2,800 and the other cannot. It is not fair. It is not appropriate. Both have the same costs. Therefore, I note what the Minister has said but I ask him to genuinely take this issue forward with his colleague to see if we can address this.

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