Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am only speaking about the part that is relevant to corporation tax. I mentioned the research and development tax credit. To give the figures for the research and development tax credit, the amount offset against the corporation tax liability in 2013 was €185 million; in 2014, €227 million; in 2015, €349 million, and in 2016, €434 million, giving a total of €1.195 billion. On the other side, there is the research and development repayable credit, or what I call a cashback. In 2013 Revenue wrote cheques to a value of €236 million; in 2014, €326 million; in 2015, €359 million, and 2016, €240 million, amounting to a cashback of €1.161 billion. The two figures add up to the sum of €2.356 billion mentioned for the four years in question, approximately half of which is a reduction in corporation tax liabilities, while the other half represents an electronic funds transfer in the other direction.

I thank the witnesses for coming back a second time to discuss the issue of corporation tax which we believed was important. I also thank the Comptroller and Auditor General and his staff for being with us. I thank Mr. Cody and his staff and the officials from the Department of Finance.

Our next meeting will be held on Thursday, 1 March, when we will meet officials from the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht to discuss chapter 15 of the 2016 report of the Comptroller and Auditor General dealing with the grant funding of the arthouse cinema in Galway and Vote 33 of the Appropriation Accounts for the then Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional and Gaeltacht Affairs.