Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

387. To ask the Minister for Health if he will provide a schedule of the non-commercial and semi-State commercial companies under his aegis; if an explanatory memorandum will be provided in respect of the policy of a dividend payment to the Exchequer from each company; the dividend paid by each company to the Exchequer for each year from 2000 to 2022; if his Department collects the funds and forwards it to the central fund or whether it goes directly; if over that period his Department has requested an increase in respect of the dividend due over it’s percentage shareholding; the number of occasions that it waived the dividend; the reason; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7907/23]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

As Minister for Health I have one commercial state body under the aegis of my Department, which is the Voluntary Health Insurance Board or Vhi.

Vhi operates on a mutual basis, with any surpluses at the end of the year being reinvested back into the business. Under the Voluntary Health Insurance Act 1957 (as amended) there is no provision for dividends to be paid from Vhi to the Exchequer.

Vhi Group was established in 2015 as part of its authorisation as an insurance provider by the Central Bank, and Vhi's different functions under the Voluntary Health Insurance Acts are carried out by subsidiaries. These subsidiaries can issue dividends within the internal group organisation. The subsidiaries issue these dividends to the Vhi parent organization, Vhi Group. The amounts of these dividends can be found in the Vhi Annual Report.

Generally, dividend payments do not arise in non-commercial state bodies.