Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Question 69: To ask the Minister for Finance the number of taxpayers who availed of tax relief for trade union membership in 2004; the cost to the Exchequer of this relief; and the estimated cost to the Exchequer if such relief were granted at source. [35053/05]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that the most recent year for which complete relevant information is available on relief for trade union subscriptions relates to the income tax year 2002, in respect of which some 229,600 claims for tax relief were allowed at an estimated cost to the Exchequer of approximately €11 million. It is not possible to estimate the additional cost of allowing tax relief for trade union subscriptions at source, but it is not likely to be significant.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Question 70: To ask the Minister for Finance the number of taxpayers who availed of tax relief for local authority charges in 2004; the amount awarded against which relief was claimed; the amount received by local authorities in the relevant year for which relief was claimable; and the cost to the Exchequer if all such charges were fully offset against tax. [35054/05]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that the most recent year for which complete information on tax relief is available on local authority service charges is for the income tax year 2002. In that year an estimated number of 124,900 claimants availed of the tax relief for the service charges at an estimated cost to the Exchequer of €5.2 million, on the basis of allowable claims in respect of domestic refuse charges totalling €26 million.

The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government is responsible for national waste management policy. I understand from his Department that based on returns received from local authorities in respect of their 2004 adopted budgets, income from domestic refuse charges applied by local authorities themselves is estimated to amount to €113 million for 2004. This figure does not include income accruing to private collectors who are involved in the provision of a waste collection service in 20 of the 34 city/county councils as the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government does not collect data from this source.

In view of the fact that full data are not available on the total cost of waste collection it is not possible to say what the additional cost to the Exchequer would be if all such charges were fully offset against tax.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Question 71: To ask the Minister for Finance the number of taxpayers who availed of tax relief for medical expenses in 2004 and for each of the previous three years; the proportion of persons who received relief at the standard rate of tax and at the higher rate of tax; the cost of such relief to the Exchequer; and the amount saved by the Exchequer by excluding the first €125 of such expenses from qualifying for relief. [35055/05]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that the latest relevant information available is based on income tax returns filed for the short income tax year ending 31 December 2001 and the year ending 31 December 2002. It is set out in the following table.

The 2001 income tax year was a short transitional tax year running from 6 April to 31 December 2001 which preceded the first full calendar tax year 1 January 2002 to 31 December 2002. It should be noted that PAYE taxpayers were charged to tax on their earnings in the period from 6 April to 31 December 2001 and self-employed taxpayers were assessed to tax for the short year on 74% of the profits earned in a 12 month accounting period. Also, the amount of medical expenses excluded from relief was restricted to the first €94 in the tax year 2001. For these reasons the cost figures will not be directly comparable with those for 2002.