Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Doherty for his contribution. We had an extensive discussion about this on Committee Stage. Amendment No. 7 proposes that an annual report be laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas showing the number of people who have availed of SARP, the number of additional jobs created and the tax foregone as a result of SARP. I tried to provide some relevant information on Committee Stage and it would be useful to repeat it. Some 12 employees claimed SARP for the 2012 tax year and the amount of tax foregone in that year was €111,722. According to the information provided to Revenue by employers in the employer annual return, five jobs were created in 2012 as a result of SARP and a further five jobs were retained.

In regard to 2013, as I outlined on Committee Stage and as the Deputy knows, the deadline for filing the self-assessed tax returns has just passed and as those figures have not yet been fully processed, I am only in a position to provide the House with provisional figures for 2013 at this time. The provisional information to date indicates that 36 employees availed of the incentive in that year and that the tax foregone was approximately €300,000. However, I emphasise that this is not a definitive figure, pending the full processing of the self-assessment returns for 2013. According to employer returns, an additional 25 jobs were created in 2013 as a result of SARP and four jobs were retained.

I can assure the Deputy that the Minister for Finance and I want to ensure the relief is effective in terms of achieving its objective of attracting key executives and decision-makers to Ireland and with them foreign direct investment. For that reason, in this year's Bill, the Minister for Finance has increased the information which employers are required to provide to Revenue to include matters such as the job title of the SARP employees, a description of the roles carried out by these employees and details of the countries in which these employees worked prior to their arrival in the State.

The purpose of requesting such information is to ensure that the relief can be properly evaluated when it is due to be reviewed again in 2017. Information of the kind sought in the amendment is readily available and for that reason the Minister for Finance does not propose to accept the amendment.

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