TÁNAISTE BRIAN Cowen has introduced a last-minute provision to the Finance Bill which will give tax relief to investors in private hospice facilities.
A late amendment to the report stage of the Bill was inserted yesterday which will result in the introduction of capital allowances for qualifying specialist care units.
Yesterday, Labour Party deputy leader Joan Burton criticised the late amendment during the debate on the Bill in the Dáil. It was being inserted so late in the day, she argued, that there was no opportunity to debate the measure.
And in a subsequent statement, she said: "The last-minute amendment to the report stage of the Finance Bill to provide tax breaks for private hospices is a sad reflection on the two-tier approach of this Government to the provision of treatment for people in need of hospice care.
"What is worse, the Minister has contrived to force this measure through without any serious debate.
"By introducing what is obviously a significant measure not in the original Bill, not in the committee stage, but as the 24th amendment at report stage, it is clear that the Minister is using Dáil rules to stifle debate," she argued.
The Finance Bill gives effect to measures announced in the Budget but also allows the Minister for Finance to introduce new measures at any stage of the legislation's passage through the Oireachtas. Two former finance ministers, Bertie Ahern and Charlie McCreevy, allowed tax breaks respectively for private art collections and also for private hospitals - both decisions drew opposition criticism.
"This has all the hallmarks of an effort to repeat the stroke pulled by the then minister for finance, Charlie McCreevy, when he introduced a similar last-minute amendment to the 2003 Finance Bill to grant generous tax concessions to the developers of new private daycare hospitals."
The measure will result in investors in palliative care getting a 41 per cent tax write-off for investments in building private hospice units. Ms Burton said this signalled a radical departure as the much-lauded hospice facilities in Ireland were all operated until now on a not-for-profit basis.