Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I strongly support this amendment. We had a discussion on this issue on Committee Stage and I appeal to the Minister, on the grounds of transparency and the public's right to know how public money is being spent, to consider the amendment favourably.

It is interesting that when we look at the cost of any of the social welfare schemes, we know exactly the number of claimants and exactly what the scheme is costing us. However, when it comes to tax provisions, there is a veil of secrecy around a number of them. From experience during the years, I know that often when one puts a question on the cost of various tax schemes to the Exchequer, the response is regularly to the effect that the data is not collected in a format which allows the Minister to answer the question. It appears very convenient that it is not collected in that format.

A number of cases come to mind. Deputy Pearse Doherty referred to the special assignee relief programme, SARP initiative, and we still do not have information on that. We do not have information on the grounds for the introduction of that initiative initially. Was there, for example, any kind of cost-benefit analysis done on it? It still strikes me as strange that in spite of introducing that preferential treatment for executives coming from abroad, the argument is still made on a regular basis that we cannot have a third rate of tax because it would frighten off executives coming in from abroad. There is no consistency on that issue. I would expect we would have some data available for 2012 at this stage, the third month of 2013, on the basic numbers claiming SARP relief and some estimate of the cost of it to the Exchequer.

There are several other examples of areas where information is lacking, for example, pension tax relief, an area costing almost €3 billion. There is major public debate on the cost of child benefit and the possibilities for making savings there, yet it is different when it comes to pension tax relief. We know from ESRI estimates that approximately 80% of pension tax relief goes to the top 20% of earners and we know that in the case of child benefit, it is paid for every individual child. The pension tax relief allocation is deeply unfair and very difficult to defend from the point of view of equity. However, when we look for the data on pension relief, we must rely on ESRI estimates. During the years, when we looked for data on who is getting that tax relief or the numbers of claimants within different income bands or on the size of pension pots on which relief is being granted, Revenue and the Department say they do not collect the data in that way.

I find it incredible that the Minister for Finance is continuing with a regime where between €2.5 billion and €3 billion is spent on pension tax relief, yet he cannot produce the data giving a clear picture of that massive expenditure. I appeal to him that on grounds of transparency, the public and public representatives are entitled to that information. How does the Minister know whether he is getting value for money? How does he know whether there is any equity about the situation if he does not produce that basic information? I appeal to him to look at this again.

The Minister should also look at who is claiming tax relief on health expenditure. There is no breakdown available on this for the public. Again, in the case of landlords and the tax reliefs they get, there is no breakdown of the data. In the past few days, I sought data regarding tax relief for educational institutions and sporting bodies, but again, the claim was that on the grounds of confidentiality that information could not be provided. We know what the various Departments and the social services cost. There is infinite detail available on that. Tax breaks and reliefs can be considered similar expenditure and we should be entitled to information on them.

I strongly support Deputy Pearse Doherty's amendment and urge the Minister to give a commitment here that he will request Revenue to collect data in a way that will allow people to make a judgment on whether we are getting value for money from the various tax relief schemes.

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