Mr. Ger Gibbons:

Yes, there is a good understanding of this particular tax credit but it is not reflected in this chapter in the report. That would be one of our concerns about the recommendations in this particular chapter. I understand it was raised in some of the previous discussions with Professor Seamus Coffey at the end of January. I believe he was raising a number of concerns about this point, just from what I have seen of his contribution, but I could be misrepresenting what he said.

There have been some good critiques of this particular tax credit over past number of years. The 2016 Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Service, IGEES, Economic Evaluation of the R&D Tax Credit 2016 critique estimated a deadweight of approximately 40% and it hinted that there would be scope to revise this particular tax credit. The tax strategy group paper from last July indicated that the cost rose from approximately €350 million in 2018 to €650 million in the past year. I am aware that the committee is aware of all of these things.