Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 13 January 2026
815. Deputy Marie Sherlock asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance the cost of extending the scope of tax relief at the standard rate of tax to routine dental treatment to cover preventative and rehabilitative treatments currently excluded including direct restorations (fillings within the mouth), all extractions and dentures; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [73940/25]
Amharc ar fhreagra816. Deputy Marie Sherlock asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance the cost of restoring tax relief at the marginal rate of tax for existing non routine dental treatment for which income tax relief at the standard rate of tax is currently available; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [73941/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 815 and 816 together.
Section 469 of the Taxes Consolidation Act (“TCA”) 1997 provides for tax relief where an individual proves that they have incurred costs in respect of qualifying health expenses. Only “health expenses” incurred in the provision of “health care”, which has been carried out or advised by (in certain circumstances) a “practitioner”, will qualify for tax relief.
Health care is defined as the “prevention, diagnosis, alleviation or treatment of an ailment, injury, infirmity, defect or disability”. Health expenses are defined as “expenses in respect of the provision of health care” and include "expenses representing the cost of maintenance or treatment necessarily incurred in connection with the services of a practitioner".
As per section 469 TCA 1997, “routine dental treatment” is defined as “the extraction, scaling and filling of teeth and the provision and repairing of artificial teeth or dentures”.
This section specifically excludes “routine dental treatment” from the definition of “health care”. As a result, routine dental treatment does not qualify for tax relief on health expenses.
However, tax relief may be available in respect of non-routine dental treatment. While non-routine dental treatment is not defined in the legislation, the list of dental treatments for which relief is allowed is included on the Form MED 2, which can be accessed on the Revenue website linked below. To claim tax relief on a dental treatment, the Form MED 2 must be signed and certified by the relevant dental practitioner and provided to the taxpayer for onward submission to Revenue if required.
Tax relief on health expenses is currently granted at the standard rate of tax (20%) generally.
With regard to the cost of extending the scope of tax relief to routine dental treatments, I am advised by Revenue that as this expense is outside the scope of the current tax relief, Revenue does not have any expenditure data on these treatments from which to estimate a cost.
Secondly, due to the way non-routine dental expenses and ‘other’ health expenses are claimed and recorded, data on specific qualifying health expenses, such as non-routine dental treatments, is not available for statistical analysis. Thus it is not possible to estimate the cost associated with altering the rate of relief applicable to this specific category of health expenses.
I would note that the relief currently provides a significant level of support, in 2023 the latest year for which data is available, the cost of tax relief for health expenses (excluding nursing home expenses) was €223.3 million and it was availed of by 706,300 claimants. The estimated total cost of tax relief for health expenses is available on the Revenue website: www.revenue.ie/en/corporate/information-about-revenue/statistics/tax-expenditures/cost/index.aspx
Further guidance on tax relief for qualifying health expenses can be found at the following links:
• Revenue’s Tax and Duty Manual Part 15-01-12: www.revenue.ie/en/tax-professionals/tdm/income-tax-capital-gains-tax-corporation-tax/part-15/15-01-12.pdf
• On the Revenue website: www.revenue.ie/en/personal-tax-credits-reliefs-and-exemptions/health-and-age/health-expenses/dental-expenses.aspx
• Form MED 2: www.revenue.ie/en/personal-tax-credits-reliefs-and-exemptions/documents/med2.pdf
