Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
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Question 177: To ask the Minister for Finance the amount per year, in tabular form, from the tax year 1996/1997 that was claimed in total to date and in total per year by tax covenanters in respect of covenants in favour of adults aged 65 years or over; and if this tax relief has been used by any of the covenanters or covenantees to help pay private nursing home fees. [41037/08]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that the information requested by the Deputy is not available.

Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
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Question 178: To ask the Minister for Finance the amount of tax relief, in tabular form, that has been claimed in total and per year for the years 1997 to 2007 for the building of private nursing homes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41038/08]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I assume the Deputy is referring to the scheme of capital allowances for capital expenditure on registered nursing homes which was introduced in 1997.

I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that information on the scheme of tax relief for registered nursing homes was for the first time specified and separately included in personal income tax returns for the tax year 2004, which were due for filing in October, 2005. No specific Revenue information on the cost of the scheme is available for the tax year 2003 or previous years.

Based on the information that has been received and collated to date for the tax years 2004, 2005 and 2006, the total amount of tax relief claimed was €82.3 million with an estimated tax cost of €34 million. The following table gives details of number of claims, amount of capital allowances and Exchequer cost in terms of income tax and corporation tax foregone for the construction of nursing homes for each of the years 2004 to 2006.

I am advised by the Revenue Commissioners that data for the tax year 2007 is not yet available as the appropriate income tax and corporation tax returns for that year are either not yet due for filing (by 17 November 2008 in the case of returns filed via ROS) or have only recently been filed but have not yet been processed.