Vol. 467 No. 1
100 Mr. S. Brennan asked the Minister for Finance the number of applications to date for tax relief on alarms for the elderly; the total number of approvals to date in this respect; the geographic spread of such applications and approvals; the total tax foregone on these approvals; the amount budgeted for 1996; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12583/96]
I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that some 300 applications for the tax relief in question have been received to date, with about 250 coming from the Dublin area. It is still a relatively early stage in the process and the number of applications is likely to increase over the remainder of the year.
Following the passing of the Finance Bill into legislation on 15 May 1996, a number of operational details required clarification. Instructions have now been issued to tax districts and the applications are now being processed.
Meaningful statistics on approvals to date are not available which would enable an estimate of the tax foregone to be provided. The estimated total cost to the Exchequer of the scheme in 1996 is of the order of £3 million.
