John Gormley
Ceist:41 Mr. Gormley asked the Minister for Finance the use that has been made of the tax benefit encouraging the construction of private hospitals, as inserted in the Finance Act 2003. [9752/03]
Written Answers - Tax Relief.
Section 24 of the Finance Act 2003 extends the current scheme of capital allowances for building used as private hospitals providing certain acute services on a day case basis. The only change made to the provision is that, in the case of a day case hospital, the minimum bed requirement is being reduced to 40 beds from the 70-bed requirement that applies generally.
As far as I am aware, there is only one such day hospital planned at present under the recent changes made by Finance Act 2003. As the Act became law on 28 March 2003 it seems unlikely that any actual applications for tax relief were made to date.