Tax Reliefs
Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-04
============================================================

Mike Kennelly (FG), Labour Panel

I thank the Minister of State for his response. Without stating the obvious, there is a trend that people are not taking out health insurance because they cannot afford the premiums. I welcome the news that budget 2027 will be looked at thoroughly in relation to getting some reduction and tax relief for the people who are doing it because, as I said, the pressure on the public system will intensify. We need more people taking out health cover. It is disappointing to see that it is estimated that the number of people insured has reduced by 150,000 over the period referred to by the Minister of State.
The current ceilings were introduced in 2014. I will be relaying my message to my party leader, the Minister for Finance, Deputy Harris. There are budgetary constraints but we need to take a serious look at this because it is damaging the health and well-being of a lot of people. A lot of retirees in particular have come to me on this issue because they simply cannot afford the premiums.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

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