Ms Deirdre Donaghy:

If it is for the full amount of the credit for all claimants, it is really a matter of cost. As the Deputy said, it is only a cashflow cost but, nonetheless, it is a cost. At the moment, the way it works is that when someone claims it in the first year, they work out how much their R&D credit can be, they work out what their corporation tax is that year, they do an offset and they see how much is left, and they can claim a repayment, and it carries forward. Again, in that year, they have to first offset against corporation tax and then claim a bit. All of the time, it is trying to link it to make sure it is something that has substance in the State. The real objective of the R&D tax credit is that it has that activity happening in the State in real, substantive businesses that generate all kind of spinouts around it.