Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The key point I made earlier is that a claimant does not have to prove that he or she made a payment in a year of assessment. My amendment seeks to provide clarification and I do not understand why it could not be accepted. All it does is clarify an issue, namely, the fact that what constitutes a year of assessment is not defined. In response to amendment No. 3, the Minister of State indicated that he does not know what years of assessment means. The amendment refers to "payments to a qualifying contractor or a number of qualifying contractors in respect of qualifying expenditure to which this section applies, incurred over the years of assessment as set out in subsection (2) of this section". Subsection (2) very clearly sets out the period of eligibility which runs from 25 October 2013 to 31 December 2015. The Minister of State has decided to indicate that the years of assessment are 2014 and 2015. That is okay but there is no definition of "years of assessment" in the legislation. I have being to establish clarity in respect of the proof a claimant must provide in respect of the years of assessment in circumstances where those years are not defined. We can take the Minister of State's word for it and the Revenue can interpret it as relating to the two periods, which is fine. However, what is stated in the Dáil is no replacement for what will be the position when this Bill becomes law.

See this speech in context