Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This Bill allows for a broader range of investment funds to invest in eligible start-ups and the intention of the measure is to stimulate new sources of finance for SMEs. My questions relate to where the Bill relaxes rules in respect of the so-called capital redemption windows so that investors with a number of investments in a company over a multiple of years may redeem an investment for a year where that year is outside the compliance period, even though other investments may still be within their compliance periods. Can the Minister clarify the operation of this provision, please?

The Bill also removes the 30% expenditure rule, which requires that an employment investment incentive, EII, investee spends 30% of the investment on qualifying purposes before relief can be claimed. I wonder if this is unduly restrictive in the context of the self-assessment principles that are now applied to relief. Previously, a company needed to either satisfy certain employment growth conditions or increase research and development expenditure for an investor to get the full tax relief, while the full 40% relief is available upfront. A clawback provision will now apply if these conditions are not met.

Can the Minister again clarify how this provision, which removes the 30% expenditure rule, will operate and is he concerned that it could undermine one of the objectives of the scheme? I would just like to tease that point out.