Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On the Deputy’s first question, which relates to the ability of investors to access the scheme itself, we are proposing that we will allow a qualifying company to repay, redeem or purchase share capital from an individual who has made investment in multiple years where some of those investments are no longer within their compliance period, but for other EII investments that are within the period without the relief, that individual may have been reduced by the value redeemed by the qualifying company.

As part of the proposed modification, the investor will be precluded from seeking relief in that company for a five-year period following such a redemption. In addition, I propose that a qualifying company may not avail of the capital redemption window unless it has sufficient reserves above any EII investments to enable it to redeem the share issue. In effect, it would not be able to use the capital raised that would qualify for relief to redeem that very capital.

On the Deputy’s other point there regarding the 30% expenditure rule and whether I believe it will have an impact on the operation of the self-assessment principle that will now operate in regard to the relief, I do not. In fact, the current way we operate this is unduly restrictive in the context of the self-assessment principle for that scheme.