Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I am aware of the Deputy's views on this and I am always conscious of the need to make the case for equity in our tax code and the concerns that ordinary taxpayers will have on something like this. The reason a scheme like this is merited is because it is part of the measures we need in order to attract people to our country who play an important role in the creation of jobs and the location of investment in Ireland. At a time in which we are seeing the competition for foreign direct investment continue to be intense and when we are seeing changes in some of that investment in Ireland, a scheme like this has an important role to play.

In other years I have made changes to deal with some of the concerns regarding the equity of the scheme and the scale of support that participants in it can receive but it is important that in evaluating this scheme, the committee is also aware that schemes like this are available in many other countries against which Ireland competes for foreign direct investment. In France, there is an allowance available that offers a deduction of between 30% and 50% of total remuneration for tax purposes. In Malta, there is a 15% flat rate of tax available to participants in their scheme. In the Netherlands, there is a scheme available that brings in a tax free allowance and in Italy, a scheme that has been in place since 2017 was approved again in 2019. Portugal has had a long-standing scheme in place for qualified non-resident professionals, delivering a 30% reduction in income tax. The scheme we have is more restrictive than the schemes that are in place in other countries and we are the only EU nation that restricts our scheme to assignees who have previously been employed in another state by that employer or by a related company. The removal of this scheme from our tax code would place Ireland at a competitive disadvantage versus other countries that are competing for these jobs to be located in their countries. It is for that reason that the retention of this relief programme is merited.