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

The home renovation incentive scheme has been very successful to date, with works on just over 27,000 homes notified to the Revenue HRI online system as of 30 September 2015. This represents more than €588 million worth of works involving 6,000 contractors. That it is online and the contractor has to register as tax compliant means everything that happens is in the white economy rather than the black economy. I do not have a figure for the number of small contractors who may have moved their status as a result of this provision but the 6,000 contractors that have benefited from this in altering or extending 27,000 homes are all legitimate and are registered. I doubt if I could get that figure as somebody would have to make an admission for that statistic to be available.