Deputy Ward hits out at 'farcical situation' facing emergency response drivers

Deputy Charles Ward has called on the Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe to amend the Finance Act so as to exempt emergency response drivers from having to pay Benefit in Kind (BIK).

He described the recent decision whereby ambulance drivers who bring their ambulance home and are effectively on duty throughout the night to be taxed by Revenue for the use of the vehicle as "crazy."

In Donegal, it is reported that seven such drivers may be affected.

Deputy Ward said: “It was ironic that if an employee was given a work van by his employer and it was taken home at night and not used for personal or private use, that employee is exempt from paying BIK.

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"Yet the Revenue Commissioners have decided to apply a tax on emergency response drivers for providing a health service in their local community. What a farcical situation to have, particularly when the Government should be encouraging more health services to be provided as locally as possible. The health benefit to the community of having the ambulance and its driver present in a rural community is priceless, having to wait for an ambulance from Letterkenny or another location in the county could cost lives."