Fundraising appeal stung by €60k VAT bill

VOLUNTARY fund raisers who helped purchase a spinal and brain injury machine for a paralysed Co Tipperary girl have been hit with a massive VAT bill by Revenue.

The HSE was unable to provide funding for the machine but the State is still looking for €60,000 in VAT from the huge voluntary effort.

The Coisceim Eile Appeal was set up to purchase the machine for Edel Ryan, 13, who is paralysed from the chest down following a car crash in 2001. The accident left her mother, Joan, with very restricted sight.

A target of €300,000 was set to purchase the Lokomat machine, which was made in Switzerland, to help Edel undergo rehab therapy.

It is now in use at the First Step Rehab Centre in Patrickswell where it is used by Edel, who lives near Cashel, and other people.

Brian Cahill, secretary of the Coiscéim Eile Appeal and a first cousin of Edel, said: “We have collected about €200,000 so far and we have a bit to go to pay off the machine.”

But their fundraising efforts will now have to be raised with a VAT demand for €60,000.

Mr Cahill said: “That amount was still being sought a few weeks ago. We are trying to work with Revenue to get relief on it.”

Mr Cahill is current captain of Bruff rugby club which has raised more than €13,000 for the Coiscéim Eile Appeal.

There is only one other Lokomat machine in the country – at the National Rehabilitation Centre in Dun Laoighre.

Coiscéim Eile point out that that machine did not incur any VAT charge.

Joan Ryan said: “It would be so much easier for us if the same was applied to our charity.”

Donations can be made to the Coiscéim Eile Appeal through account number 90-40-68-98, Bank of Ireland, Cashel; sorting code 90-59-77.