Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I think Deputy Boyd Barrett is missing the bigger picture with this section and what it does. It maintains the existing benefit for the pillar 2 companies. The big winners in this section are the companies not in-scope of pillar 2. They benefit from the increase in the rate of the research and development tax credit, and they benefit from the doubling of the first year payment threshold from €25,000 to €50,000. The reason so many small companies do not engage in research and development comes down to cash flow and the ability to get support from the State to engage in it. That is the real story of this section. Yes, it is about ensuring we are not diluting the benefit of research and development for in-scope companies, because it is an important consideration for them when they are looking at their investment decisions. We are not just talking about a small number of companies. Of that 1,629 claimant companies in 2021, we believe almost 700 are in-scope of pillar 2. It is not a small number of companies. They collectively employ probably hundreds of thousands of people. It is an important issue for Ireland in terms of our attractiveness as a country for inward investment. The real story of this section is that the SMEs are the biggest beneficiaries.