A new tax relief is to be made available to living kidney donors.

According to the Department of Health, this new relief ‘will exempt the reimbursable expenses of living kidney donors for income tax purposes in three areas - loss of income, accommodation and travel costs'.

"The aim is to ensure that donors do not lose out financially when they donate a kidney. Anyone donating a kidney must take a certain amount of time off work in order to recover. This can have an impact on their ability to earn a living. This new measure will make sure that living kidney donors see the full benefit of a generous range of financial supports," explained Health Minister, Leo Varadkar.

The new measure was announced in the Finance Bill by Finance Minister, Michael Noonan, on Tuesday. The reimbursement process will be managed by the HSE, which will be responsible for setting out procedures, rates and upper limits for each reimbursable item.

The number of living people choosing to donate a kidney has risen every year in Ireland for the last five years. In 2009, 18 living people donated a kidney and by last year, this figure had reached 38.

The Living Kidney Programme is located in Dublin's Beaumont Hospital and according to Minister Varadkar, it is hoped that measures like this will help increase the rate of living kidney donations in the coming years ‘and ultimately reach 100 living kidney transplants per annum'.