Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

My amendment has been ruled out of order. It is important that the Minister examine the base year for research and development tax credits. It is ten years old and from next year it will be over ten years old. We have companies returning to records in excess of a decade old. I was of the view that the Minister intended to do this and hoped he would signal it in this Bill. I do not see it in the legislation. We have suggested in our submission, in terms of the Minister's consultation on the research and development tax credit, that we need to move to a period of less than ten years. In the amendment that was ruled out of order I suggested six years. We could debate the duration but it is not feasible to continue to have 2003 as the base year.