Neasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Here is the metric I am interested in. I could not find that information anywhere, or at least I was not able to collate it in the way I wanted to. How many of these 165 tax expenditure elements are over €25 million? That is the limit that triggers the three-year review. If only four of these measures are being reviewed annually, then I suspect that the Department is woefully understaffed in this regard to undertake this kind of work. I also suspect that the ratio of what is being reviewed is not 1:1. It is very low. In respect of the €25 million limit, I would appreciate knowing how many of these 165 tax expenditure measures meet that stipulation and are meant to be reviewed every three years. That would be very useful.

I will stick to an overall view of how we do this. This might be more an issue for those who deal with trade and employment. Some of the measures we are speaking about today have very specific employment requirements. This is not always the case with tax expenditure. Is there a different quantitative requirement for reviews of these? Who gets involved in this? Does it all happen in the Department of Finance? Are other Departments involved where aspects of the expenditure are more complex than simply handing over money to be tax compliant? This may be the case where there are employment clauses. I ask this very specifically because we will soon deal with gaming development tax expenditure. I am very keen on this. I would like to see it treated in the same way as film tax expenditure is treated, with goals to support the industry in terms of staff and training. Is there a difference between how we look at these types of tax expenditures as opposed to standard tax expenditure that does not have an employment cause?