Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 18 December 2025
378. Deputy Cathal Crowe asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance if he will consider exempting from inheritance tax any legacies left by patients who contracted hepatitis as a result of health care system failures; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [73737/25]
View answerSection 82 of the Capital Acquisitions Tax Consolidation Act (CATCA) 2003 provides that the receipt of certain types of compensation and damages are not gifts or inheritances and are therefore exempt from CAT. The types of compensation and damages that are deemed not to be gifts or inheritances are:
• the receipt by a person of any compensation or damages received for any wrong or injury to that person, his/her property, reputation or means of livelihood;
• the receipt by a person of any compensation or damages received for any wrong or injury resulting in the death of another person.
It is not required that such compensation or damages are awarded by a court. The exemption will also apply where the payment is received bona fide by way of an out-of-court settlement. As such, the receipt by a person of compensation or damages for contracting hepatitis as a result of health care system failures is exempt from CAT.
The exemption provided by section 82 CATCA 2003 can only be availed of by the person who receives such compensation or damages. Where a person who received such compensation or damages subsequently dies, the exemption does not extend to inheritances received from that person’s estate.
The Deputy should note that my Department has examined extending exemptions that exist for compensation payments to legacies in a Capital Gains Tax context, however there were legal, technical and administrative impediments that would not allow for such legislation. It is likely that similar legal, technical and administrative impediments would apply to exempting from inheritance tax any legacies left by patients who contracted hepatitis as a result of health care system failure.
