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

There is no concrete evidence that those who avail of SARP would not have come here in any event, that their relevant employer would not have brought them here. We are talking about a handful of individuals - as opposed to thousands of people who have flooded to our shores as a result of this measure - whose companies are located here. There is no guarantee that they would not have come here regardless of these provisions. The Minister has created a sweetener for them and said he would give them €150,000 off their tax bill, that they need not worry about it, that they are one of the highest paid employees in the State but the country can afford to go without that portion of tax because we do not have a problem of homelessness, hospital waiting lists or discretionary medical cards and that we are not screwing people by asking them to pay additional water charges which they cannot pay and so on. Therefore, we can afford to allow those people to have their tax bill written off despite the fact that they are one of the highest paid income earners in the State. That is what this provision says.