Finance Act 2010

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Amendment of section 469 (relief for health expenses) of Principal Act.

6.— (1) Section 469 of the Principal Act is amended—

(a) in subsection (1) by substituting the following for the definition of “ health care ”:

“ ‘health care’ means prevention, diagnosis, alleviation or treatment of an ailment, injury, infirmity, defect or disability, and includes care received by a woman in respect of a pregnancy, but does not include—

(a) routine ophthalmic treatment,

(b) routine dental treatment, or

(c) cosmetic surgery or similar procedures, unless the surgery or procedure is necessary to ameliorate a physical deformity arising from, or directly related to, a congenital abnormality, a personal injury or a disfiguring disease;”,

(b) in subsection (1) in the definition of “ health expenses ” by substituting the following for paragraph (c):

“(c) maintenance or treatment necessarily incurred in connection with the services or procedures referred to in paragraph (a) or (b),”,

(c) in subsection (1) by deleting the definition of “ hospital ”,

(d) in subsection (1) in paragraph (a) of the definition of “practitioner” by substituting “ section 43 of the Medical Practitioners Act 2007 ” for “ section 26 of the Medical Practitioners Act, 1978 ”,

(e) by substituting the following for subsection (2)—

“(2) (a) Subject to this section, where an individual for a year of assessment proves that in the year of assessment he or she defrayed health expenses incurred for the provision of health care, the income tax to be charged on the individual, other than in accordance with section 16(2), for that year of assessment shall be reduced by the lesser of—

(i) the amount equal to the appropriate percentage of the specified amount, and

(ii) the amount which reduces that income tax to nil,

but, where an individual proves that he or she defrayed health expenses incurred for the provision of health care in the nature of maintenance or treatment in a nursing home, other than a nursing home which does not provide access to 24 hour nursing care on-site, the individual shall be entitled for the purpose of ascertaining the amount of the income on which he or she is to be charged to income tax, to have a deduction made from his or her total income of the amount proved to have been so defrayed.

(b) For the purposes of this section any contribution made by an individual in defraying expenses incurred in respect of nursing home fees where such an individual is entitled to or has received State support (within the meaning of section 3(1) of the Nursing Homes Support Scheme Act 2009 ) shall be treated as health expenses qualifying for relief under this section.

(c) Financial support (within the meaning of the Nursing Homes Support Scheme Act 2009 ) shall not be treated as health expenses for the purposes of this section.”,

and

(f) by inserting the following after subsection (7)—

“(8) (a) Where the Minister for Finance determines that expenses, or a class of expenses, representing the cost of anything referred to in paragraphs (a) to (i) in the definition of ‘health expenses’ in subsection (1) has been or may be incurred in the provision of health care which in the opinion of the Minister for Finance is inappropriate having regard to public policy, then the Minister may by order prescribe those expenses, or class of expenses, as not being eligible for relief under this section.

(b) The Minister for Finance shall not make an order under paragraph (a) unless he or she has consulted with the Minister for Health and Children and such appropriately qualified persons, bodies or institutions (if any), which in the opinion of the Minister for Finance or the Minister for Health and Children should be consulted.

(c) Every order made by the Minister for Finance under paragraph (a) shall be laid before Dáil Éireann as soon as may be after it is made and, if a resolution annulling the order is passed by Dáil Éireann within the next 21 days on which Dáil Éireann has sat after the order is laid before it, the order shall be annulled accordingly, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done thereunder.”.

(2) This section shall have effect for the year of assessment 2010 and subsequent years.