Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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282. To ask the Minister for Finance further to Parliamentary Question No. 232 of 17 September 2014, if he is in favour of a change to the EU VAT directive and relevant orders to allow for a zero rate of VAT for the purchase of defibrillators for community and sporting organisations. [41297/14]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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As outlined in the response to Parliamentary Question No. 232 of 17 September 2014, defibrillators, other than implantable defibrillators, are liable to VAT at the standard rate of 23% in compliance with EU VAT law.

EU VAT law, with which Irish VAT law must comply, is strict on the application of a zero rate of VAT to goods or services. Article 110 of the EU VAT Directive law provides that it is only possible to apply a zero rate to goods and services where a Member State applied a zero rate to a specific good or service, that is social in nature, and where it applied at a zero rate on and from 1 January 1991. Under existing VAT law, therefore, it would not be possible to apply the zero rate to the supply of defibrillators as they did not apply at a zero rate of VAT.

With regard to making changes at EU level to provide that other goods or services can apply at the zero rate, I would point out that zero-rating is an historical derogation from the normal VAT rules, where the intention is that such VAT treatment is temporary, and should be removed over time. In addition, only a small number of Member States apply zero-rated VAT treatment and the EU Commission has actively being trying to simplify the VAT rating system to improve the efficiency of the Single Market. For these reasons, I do not consider that a proposal to seek a zero rate of VAT for the purchase of defibrillators for community and sporting organisations would succeed.