Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Tax expenditures are there for a reason. Sometimes they are a good idea and sometimes they are a bad idea and they have to be regularly reviewed. They have to be justifiable. One of the most expensive tax expenditures we have is mortgage interest relief. We allow people to offset some of their income tax against the cost of their mortgage. That was introduced to promote home ownership and to help people pay their mortgages. Hundreds of thousands of people around the country have benefitted from that over the years. Not taxing child benefit is also a tax expenditure. We took a decision as a Government that we would not tax child benefit as income and that was designed to help parents out with the cost of looking after their children.

If a carer or a nurse is hired to look after an elderly relative in one's home, that can, again, be offset against income tax. That is also a tax expenditure. We have some for business as well. The employment and investment incentive, EII, scheme, which replaced the business expansion scheme, BES, is designed to encourage people to invest in business and, thus, create jobs. There is one for film as well which has been hugely successful in bringing films to Ireland and creating jobs all over the country. There is also one for workers' expenses. If a person working in a particular job needs certain uniforms and equipment, he or she can offset that cost against income tax. There used to be one for trade union subscriptions. I imagine the Deputy would like to bring that back. Some people want to bring one in for rent again. The research and development tax relief is intended to produce research and development. There is also a very expensive relief where we do not require people to pay capital gains tax if they sell their family home. That recognises that the family home is something very particular in Ireland. If a family home is sold, there is no capital gains tax on that; it is not treated as an investment property. When tax expenditures are spoken of, they need to be talked about in the round and it must be understood they are all there for a reason. It must, of course, be a good reason and they must be regularly reviewed and amended.

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