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

Nobody is suggesting that anybody in this room does not support what Revenue does. The question is in regard to the profile of individuals who are investing under this scheme. We have raised similar questions in the past in regard to other schemes, including the section 23 reliefs in terms of if they were to be abolished what type of profile of individual would have benefitted or lost as a result of that. What I am asking is if the Department does not already have access to this information, will it commission a report on the scheme to ensure that this type of investment incentive is not being used predominantly by high net worth individuals as a way of avoiding tax? Whether Revenue has to approve such investments or not is not the issue because Revenue has clear rules in regard to what governs approval and so on. This does not take away from the fact that we may have left something in our tax code that, while it serves one purpose might be abused by high net worth individuals. Has any cost benefit analysis been undertaken in regard to this relief?

The Minister might also inform the committee how many employers were hired on the basis of administration of this relief scheme and how much tax relief was given to businesses employment.