The Government will give consideration to removing VAT on condoms in the interests of protecting public health, Minister for Health Mary Harney indicated yesterday.
At present, condoms are regarded as luxury items for tax purposes and, therefore, the VAT rate on them is set at 21 per cent, making them expensive for young people and those on low incomes. But following yet another call for the VAT on them to be removed yesterday, Ms Harney said: "I think it is something we should give consideration to." But the decision would ultimately be a matter for Minister for Finance Brian Cowen who has responsibility for taxation, she conceded.
"But clearly in the context of promoting good practice we have to examine how the health and tax system can work together to encourage good behaviour," she said.
"Clearly we tax alcohol and cigarettes very heavily because we want to, in the first instance, discourage people from consuming to excess in the case of alcohol and consuming cigarettes at all . . . In the case of condoms we want to promote . . . young people in particular to use condoms," she said.
"I think it's something we should give consideration to. It has been raised before . . . It is not something on which we have developed a policy approach at Government level to date."
A report, commissioned by the Department of Health and the Crisis Pregnancy Agency and published last October, recommended that serious attention be given to reducing the cost of contraception in the Republic, especially the cost of condoms.
Compiled by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, the report involved surveying some 7,500 adults across the State and some 15 per cent of them said the cost of condoms would discourage their use.
Earlier yesterday the Irish Pharmaceutical Union (IPU), the representative body for 1,600 pharmacists, said that removing the current VAT rate on condoms might encourage more people to protect themselves from sexually transmitted infections and reduce the risk of unplanned pregnancies by making condoms more affordable.
Darragh O'Loughlin, chairman of the IPU's community pharmacy committee, said that removing the VAT on condoms - as many other European countries had done - would send out a clear signal to people that the Government was encouraging them not to have unprotected sex, which risks sexually transmitted infections or an unplanned pregnancy.
"Charging VAT on condoms at the same time as running campaigns to encourage their use is utterly nonsensical," he said.
Ms Harney, who was speaking to reporters as she arrived to attend a book launch at Dublin Castle, said many charitable organisations had also raised issues with her about VAT on much-needed equipment and so on.
"There are still huge areas there where I think we need to do a piece of work," she said.
"Just very recently we've agreed with the Minister for Finance and he made provision for it in the current finance Bill to exclude VAT from services provided at home, where care is provided in the home particularly for older people . . . so we have to examine each issue," she added.
It is not known how much the Government collects in revenue from VAT on condoms every year. The Revenue Commissioners said the amount was "not identifiable" from general tax returns.