Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)

There you go. Róisín will kill me. Many people do not claim this. I would really encourage people, particularly in terms of the cost-of-living crisis, to claim for the flat rate expenses if they are on home dialysis, if they have a child with a disability or a life-limiting condition, if they are making those journeys, if they or a family member has CAPD, or if they have health expenses or other expenses that they have not claimed for.

I will finish on the following. It is something I will revisit. I said this at the start and I just want to make the point again. I have focused on home dialysis, but this is broader than home dialysis. There are a number of health-related schemes. You could actually argue that all tax credits should be refundable and so forth. We could have that argument about the rent tax credit and so on, but I think most people will recognise that there is a uniqueness in relation to health issues and that there should be a differentiation based on your income and the support should be available to you regardless. This is not just about dialysis. It relates to other health-related schemes as well. We should make sure that nobody falls foul of the rules simply because they are too sick to work and to have a tax liability, they are caring for somebody else in a full-time position and do not have a tax liability, or their employment does not allow them to earn enough to have a tax liability.

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