Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In the interests of transparency and debate, it is important to respond to some of the points that have been raised. I will not even go down the road of getting into the water debate. I do not agree with Deputy Pearse Doherty on it. I will stick to the amendment. We heard people clearly and we have tried to respond to people's concerns while recognising that we have to invest in water.

I do not accept the concept that there is "tax forgone", although it is a wording that I used on Committee Stage. The whole idea is that this relates to tax that would not otherwise have been paid in this country. If new people come to this country, they will bring their incomes here. The Deputy raised the question of their income levels. Their income is not paid by the State. Their income levels are not much to the Deputy or to me. They are being paid privately through business. I will give an example. Someone who is on €500,000 is paying approximately €177,000, even under the enhanced special assignee relief programme, in taxes that we would not normally get into the State. This is tax that we would not otherwise be getting. I would argue that we are bringing in decision-makers with the capability of creating employment here. The Deputy is right when he says the numbers have not been massive. According to Revenue's provisional figures for 2013, there are 29 people in employment who would not otherwise be in employment without this programme.

When I suggested that some people are trying to throw out all of these initiatives, I was not referring to Deputy Pearse Doherty. I was alluding to amendment No. 8, which has been ruled out of order. The Socialist Party tabled that amendment because it wants to scrap the scheme entirely without having any interaction as we have had in this case. I think I have outlined clearly why we are in favour of this scheme. I will conclude by commenting on the idea that this was done on the basis of a kind of hunch, or just for the sake of it. A full review of the special assignee relief programme has been carried out and published on the website of the Department of Finance. A number of these schemes have been subjected to significant review. The Deputy is right when he says we listen to organisations like IDA Ireland, which is selling Ireland every day. I think it is worth taking a chance on this. I do not think there is any downside to the country. I think we can get extra tax revenue by locating people here. I refer to people on high, privately-paid salaries who would not otherwise be paying tax here. We should give it a try. It will be reviewed again in 2017.

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