Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The reason I am including the cap is that I am not quite sure what the overall cost might be. I am also responding to the points made by Deputy Pearse Doherty and others that it should not provide for a bonanza for non-executive directors who were non-executive directors in a variety of boards and whose directors' fees and expenses could amount to very significant sums of money which would not be taxed. That was the consideration behind it.

I would not object to revisiting this provision next year when we receive some data from the Revenue Commissioners on how it is working out. It is something new. I do not know how many people are non-executive directors, how many of them travel distances and how many of them are required to stay overnight in attending board meetings; therefore, I am proceeding cautiously. The Civil Service rates cannot be exceeded. It is a measure to prevent possible abuse. That is what the note I have been handed states, but that does not tell Deputy Stephen S. Donnelly an awful lot more than he already knows.

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