Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Last year we increased the amount that was available to a company and we said it could assign 10% to a key employee. We found there was a barrier in that respect because if it was mistakenly applied, the employee had to repay rather than the company while the company has full control of the assignment. This amendment is to make it clear that it is the company that has the liability for any claw-back that occurs if it is misappropriately applied to a key employee. The change announced on budget day as part of the research and development tax credits was that the 10% increases to 15% in terms of the amount of the tax relief the company can reallocate to key employees.