Charity-funded air ambulance facing €320k Vat bill because of Brexit

Ireland’s only charity-funded air ambulance is facing a massive €320,000 Vat bill because of a Brexit-related change in aircraft leasing — unless the Government acts.

The team at Irish Community Air Ambulance (ICAA), which has been tasked almost 1,000 times by the National Ambulance Service over the past two years, has appealed to the Finance Minister to level the playing field.

ICAA wants Paschal Donohue to extend a specific Vat relief scheme to include ICAA and save it paying an amount of Vat which could instead fund around 90 life-saving missions.

The move would involve the minister including ICAA under section 103 of the Value Added Tax Consolidation Act 2010, legislation which was introduced by former finance minister Michael Noonan in 2013 for inshore rescue craft — which at the time was understood to be lifeboats.

The liability arises because the ICAA leases its helicopters from UK-based Sloane Helicopters, which must set up a company in Ireland this month to enable it to continue operating in Ireland post-Brexit.

ICAA will then lease its helicopters from the new Irish entity but as a result, will be charged Vat on its payments to Sloane Ireland.

Call for equity

The call for equity has been backed by Fine Gael Senator Jerry Buttimer who said ICAA is providing a vital life-saving service to the State, which is, at the same time, charging it Vat for providing that service.

“An equitable outcome must be achieved for ICAA so that donations given to fund the rescue of people in medical emergencies by air can achieve the maximum return in the same way as donations given to fund the rescue of people in difficulty at sea are currently able to do,” he said.

ICAA, which is tasked by the National Ambulance Service, has reported a 20% rise in taskings so far this year.

Last Saturday evening, it airlifted a 10-year-old boy, injured in a road traffic accident in Listowel, to Temple Street in Dublin in less than an hour.

Just two weeks ago, for the first time in the same shift, it transferred two critically injured patients to the country’s two designated trauma centres.

The first patient was critically injured in a workplace accident in Enniscorthy and was airlifted to the Mater in Dublin, and while the aircraft was returning to base in north Cork, it was tasked to Bansha in Tipperary, from where it airlifted a patient critically injured following a fall from a horse to Cork University Hospital.

Safety campaign

Meanwhile, ICAA has teamed up with Macra na Feirme to launch a joint safety campaign for the summer.

Of ICAA’s 233 taskings this year, 38 have been to farm-related incidents involving PTO shafts, machinery, falls from heights and animal attacks.

Macra president, John Keane, said: "Not every accident will result in death, but many cause serious injury and all cause disruption.

"We are grateful that the ICAA service can respond, but the question for farmers is simple. How would you feel if it had to land in one of your fields?”