Investors to make fortune on terminal patients
A HUGE row is about to break out over Government plans to privatise death.
Millionaire investors will soon be able to profit massively from the last days of terminal patients.
The hospice movement -- traditionally a volunteer, charitable sector -- is about to face financial competition from the profit-motivated private sector.
A late amendment to the Finance Bill, tabled yesterday, will enable investors to reclaim more than 41pc of income tax from investments in privatised shelters for the dying.
The FF/PD coalition ran into a storm of criticism in its last term of office when it pushed through special tax breaks for private hospitals -- including "sweetheart" co-location on public hospital land.
The news that it is to extend the special tax breaks from private hospitals to hospices is certain to dismay charities working with the dying.
A wealthy individual investing €1m would receive a tax break of €410,000 over 15 years under the 11th-hour change to the legislation -- which is itself due to be guillotined tomorrow.
Last night, Labour party spokeswoman on Finance Joan Burton said the move beggared belief.
"To introduce a last-minute amendment to the report stage of the Finance Bill to provide tax breaks for private hospices is a sad reflection on the approach of this government," she said.
Introducing the amendment, relating to capital allowances for qualifying "specialist palliative care units at the report stage means that there will be virtually no debate before the measure is rubber-stamped through the Dail.
Write-off
The amendment will benefit investors in construction or refurbishment of palliative care buildings which will have to have at least 20 in-patient beds. Investors will get a 41pc tax write-off for every euro they commit to such a project.
"This is a move by Minister Cowen to stimulate more construction opportunities for developers," Ms Burton said.
"It is a way to stimulate the building trade so beloved of Fianna Fail, but at the expense of a considered approach to the best way to care for people in their last days."
The hospice movement, which enjoys massive public support, has traditionally been a not-for-profit movement.
Care has been allocated on the basis of medical need rather than the patient's financial resources or private health insurance status, although many hospices benefit from large bequests.The Government is expected to counter that communities across the country are crying out for hospice care facilities -- which cannot be created by do-good organisations on their own.
There has long been a campaign for a hospice in Kilkenny in memory of the late Susie Long, who died after a wait for treatment as a public patient.
"It would be ironic if the Government response to tragic cases such as that of Susie Long was simply to extend their private medicine model even to hospice and palliative care," Ms Burton said.
- Senan Molony Deputy Political Editor
