Irish Health Minister Hints At Tax Hikes

by Jason Gorringe, Tax-News.com, London

20 August 2002

Speaking at the weekend, Irish Health Minister, Michael Martin suggested that it may be necessary to increase certain taxes in order to fund the government's much publicised health strategy, set to cost 16.5 billion euros over the next seven to ten years.

However, as the government is anxious to avoid the appearance of having broken election promises not to increase income taxes, the additional money is likely to come from higher indirect taxes on certain products, excise duty increases, and further increases in employee's PRSI contributions.

Mr Martin confirmed that these measures were under consideration on Sunday, revealing that: 'Obviously we'd be looking at a number of areas in terms of revenue generation, not least the cigarette and tobacco issue.'

According to a report in the Irish Independent on Monday, the Irish Health Minister has already had talks with Finance Minister, Charlie McCreevy over increasing funding for the department, arguing that hundreds of millions of euros more will be necessary in order to maintain services at their current level, without launching any aspect of the new health strategy.

'Clearly we are facing into a tighter fiscal situation next year, but the Minister for Finance himself has said that health is the priority,' Mr Martin stated, explaing that funding for health 'remains a priority issue' for Fianna Fail.

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