Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 18 December 2025
366. Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance the number of people in receipt of the incapacitated child tax credit in the years 2024 and to date in 2025; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [73442/25]
View answerThe Incapacitated Child Tax Credit (ICTC) which is provided for by section 465 of the Taxes Consolidation Act (“TCA”) 1997, is available to an individual who has a child living, at any time in a year of assessment, who:
• if under 18 years of age is permanently incapacitated by reason of mental or physical infirmity and the infirmity is such that there would be a reasonable expectation that if the child were over the age of 18, the child would be incapacitated from maintaining himself or herself, or
• if over the age of 18 years at the beginning of the year, is permanently incapacitated by reason of mental or physical infirmity from maintaining himself or herself and had become so permanently incapacitated either before attaining the age of 21 or whilst in receipt of full-time instruction at a university, college, school or other educational establishment.
The credit may also be available to an individual who has custody of, and maintains at his or her own expense, a child who fulfils the above criteria.
I am advised by Revenue that the latest data available on the number of taxpayer units availing of the ICTC is available on the Revenue website in their ‘Cost of Tax Expenditures’ publication, which can be accessed at: www.revenue.ie/en/corporate/documents/statistics/tax-expenditures/costs-tax-expenditures.pdf
In this regard, 47,700 taxpayer units claimed the credit, with an Exchequer cost of €151.3 million, in 2023 the latest year for which Revenue data is available.
As self-assessed Form 11 tax returns for 2024 were due to be filed by November 2025, data is not yet available in relation to that year. Data in relation to 2024 will be available in mid-2026, once the returns have been processed and data is prepared for analysis. The deadline for self-assessed Form 11 returns in relation to 2025 are not due until November 2026 and therefore data in relation to 2025 will be available in mid-2027.
It should be noted that the data published in relation to the ICTC are published on a taxpayer unit basis, where jointly assessed couples are counted as one unit.
