Written Answers Nos. 47-53
47. Deputy Derek Nolan asked the Minister for Finance if any interest has been expressed by third parties in seeking a banking licence to set up an Islamic bank in view of the 50,000 Muslim people resident here who, under sharia or Muslim law, are forbidden from paying interest on finance agreements to cater for their mortgage requirements; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11008/14]
View answerTo date, no application for a bank licence has been received by the Central Bank for any bank to offer retail products under Sharia'h law in the Irish domestic market.
48. Deputy Brendan Ryan asked the Minister for Finance if he will consider widening the terms of the Med 1 medical claims form to include persons who have severe myopia and need specialist glasses for work; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11022/14]
View answerRelief in respect of health expenses is allowed in accordance with the provisions of section 469 of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997. In order to qualify for relief an individual must show that he or she has incurred "health expenses" for the provision of "health care".
For the purposes of section 469 "health care" is the prevention, diagnosis, alleviation or treatment of an ailment, injury, infirmity, defect or disability.
However, routine ophthalmic treatment is specifically excluded from "health care" for the purposes of tax relief. Section 469(1) describes "routine ophthalmic treatment" as sight testing and advice as to the use of spectacles or contact lenses, and the provision and repairing of spectacles or contact lenses.
However, where an individual has severely impaired vision to the extent that:
- The central visual acuity does not exceed 6/60 in the better eye with correcting lenses, or
- The widest diameter of the visual field subtends an angle no greater than 20 degrees,
he or she may apply for a tax credit (known as the blind person's tax credit). The value of the credit is €1,650 for the tax year or €3,300 where the individual and his or her spouse or civil partner both qualify. Further information on this credit is available on the Revenue website at http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/it/credits/blind-credit.html.
49. Deputy John Deasy asked the Minister for Finance if he will provide a breakdown of his Department's expenditure on translating and printing Irish language publications, documents, advertisements, notices and bilingual signage in each of the past three years. [11049/14]
View answerThe Irish language translation costs for my Department are set out in the following table:
|
Year |
2011 |
2012 |
2013 |
2014 |
|
Amount |
€7,511.14 |
€6,232.79 |
€10,202.25 |
€7,618.21 |
50. Deputy Lucinda Creighton asked the Minister for Finance further to Parliamentary Question No. 91 on 13 February 2014, and the letter provided to this Deputy from his Department on 20 February 2014, if the National Assets Management Agency will detail the euro nominal amount of the balance of the €3.5 billion by category that is secured by property, assets other than land and development and unsecured; if he will categorise the other types of assets other than land and development that are included in the balance of the €3.5 billion; of the 322 borrowers, if he will detail the total euro nominal balance of their total NAMA exposure; if he will further detail the total number of connections these 322 borrowers have with NAMA; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11057/14]
View answerI am advised by NAMA that it estimates that €734m of the €3.5 billion loan nominal acquired by NAMA for nil consideration were secured by Property. Of the loans secured by property NAMA estimates that €425m was secured by land and development and €309m was secured by investment properties. The balance of the loans of €2.8 billion were unsecured or secured against assets other than property assets. Assets other than property assets against which loans of €2.8 billion were granted where NAMA paid nil consideration included shares or other investments and equity releases where the security had no value at time of acquisition. NAMA acquired in excess of €55 billion of par debt connected to the 322 borrowers.
51. Deputy Michael McCarthy asked the Minister for Finance to outline the average length of time it takes to access funds from an An Post bond; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11063/14]
View answerThe National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) has advised that the average length of time taken to process repayments from State Savings products is currently 5 working days. This is within the published repayment notice period of 7 working days for State Savings products other than the Deposit Account Plus where the repayment notice period is 30 days.
52. Deputy Charles Flanagan asked the Minister for Finance if he will extend the cycle to work scheme; and if he will consider allowing original recipients of the scheme to reapply. [11066/14]
View answerThe Cycle To Work scheme provides that a director or employee shall not be relieved from a charge to income tax more than once in any period of 5 consecutive years of assessment, commencing with the year of assessment in which the director or employee concerned is first provided with a bicycle or bicycle safety equipment. Accordingly, a person who purchased a bicycle in the 2009 year of assessment, could at this stage, once again avail of the provisions of the scheme. I have no plans at this stage to extend the scheme.
53. Deputy Colm Keaveney asked the Minister for Finance in view of the confusion that has arisen between various wholesalers and which has now become a point of concern for consumers if he will clarify the VAT treatment of herbal or fruit-based teas, in particular where such teas do not contain tea leaves derived from tea plants; if such herbal and fruit-based teas are liable for VAT over 0%, if he will consider altering the VAT treatment to make these zero rated; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11068/14]
View answerI am advised by the Revenue Commissioners that VAT law in Ireland must comply with the EU VAT Directive. In this respect, while the majority of food products are already liable at the zero rate of VAT, food products can only benefit from zero rating in accordance with Article 110 of the VAT Directive which permits the retention of the zero rate for clearly defined social reasons where products were liable to VAT at the zero rate on 1 January 1991. Settled case law requires that such exemptions be strictly interpreted and narrowly applied so as not to create or increase divergence of VAT treatment among the EU Member States.
Paragraph 8 of Schedule 2 of the Value-Added Tax Consolidation Act 2010 provides that the supply of tea and preparations derived from tea when supplied in non-drinkable form are supplies of food and drink of a kind for human consumption that is liable to VAT at the zero rate. In this regard, Revenue take that view that tea as commonly understood means the dried crushed leaves of the tea plant, but not tea as would be understood to include herbal and fruit based infusions. This alternative interpretation has been raised by the sector in recent months with Revenue who, I understand, is giving the matter some initial consideration.
