Tax Reliefs
Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-04
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Mike Kennelly (FG), Labour Panel

I also welcome the Minister of State. I wish to raise the escalating cost of private health insurance and the growing financial pressure it is placing on many individuals and households. What we are seeing is not a marginal increase or a gentle upward trend. Premiums have risen sharply, and sometimes multiple times in a year. This has pushed many families to the brink. These are people who do everything right. They work hard, they pay their taxes and they try to protect their loved ones by maintaining health cover they see as essential rather than optional. Despite this, every renewal notice brings anxiety as opposed to reassurance. It is not only working families who are feeling the pressure. Retired individuals and older couples - people who have contributed throughout their lives and who rely on timely healthcare more than ever - are finding themselves increasingly unable to maintain the cover they once depended on. At the very stage in life when health insurance becomes most critical, many are being priced out of the system entirely. Their fixed incomes simply cannot keep pace with the relentless rise in premiums.
The tax reliefs available on health insurance premiums were significantly reduced during the financial crisis.
The marginal rate of relief was removed in 2014, 12 years ago. That was introduced as a temporary austerity measure but allowed to become permanent. Before that, relief was granted at the marginal rate, which for many taxpayers was 40%. That support was cut and standardised. Today it stands at just 20%.
Despite the recovery of the public finances and repeated claims that austerity is well behind us, this reduction has never been revisited. The result is a double hit: rapidly rising premiums on one side and a weakened tax offset on the other. Families and individuals who make up the backbone of private health insurance membership have been hard hit. Many households have endured increases of 30%, 40% or even 50% in recent years with no adjustment in tax relief to soften the blow. For some, the cost of cover now rivals a mortgage payment. Families are being forced into impossible choices: either keep the insurance and cut back elsewhere or drop it and hope they will not need timely care.
This is not sustainable and it is not reflective of a Government that claims to support working people. Given the scale of the increases and the fundamental importance of access to timely healthcare, I ask the Minister of State to confirm whether the Government will undertake a meaningful review of the tax relief structure for private health insurance premiums. Will the Department examine whether the reduced rate of relief remains appropriate? Will it consider restoring relief at the marginal rate or introducing a more progressive structure that reflects the pressures on ordinary families? There is a large and growing constituency of working people who feel they are being quietly priced out of private healthcare. They feel unheard and they are right to be frustrated. The same is true for many retirees, who now face the stark reality that the system they supported for decades no longer supports them when they need it most. A review is not only overdue; it is necessary.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-02-04/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:35+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-04