Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 9:

In page 27, after line 38, to insert the following: “Report on Foreign Earnings Deduction

17.The Minister shall, within six months of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay before Dáil Éireann a report on the Foreign Earnings Deduction, the extent to which the relief has achieved its policy objectives and to review its qualifying criteria to ensure it achieves its policy objectives.”

We will come to amendment No. 11, which calls on the rent freeze, after we deal with amendments Nos. 9 and 10.

Let me make this point to the Minister and perhaps his colleague will come to the Chamber and assist him in his response. He made the point about people objecting to social housing. What we want is social and affordable housing built on public lands. Perhaps the Minister could comment on the Clonburris strategic development zone, SDZ. Is he familiar with that development? It had the potential to provide 8,000 to 11,000 homes, 30% social and affordable housing, in Clondalkin. Who opposed it? Fine Gael did. The Minister's colleague, Deputy Emer Higgins, was group leader at the time. Thankfully, the council voted for it, but Fine Gael did not let it rest there. What did it do? It appealed the decision, for 11,000 homes, to An Bord Pleanála. That is the reality and there are countless examples of that not just in Dublin city but across the board. There are also countless examples of sweetheart deals, as Deputy Boyd Barrett mentioned, where houses are going to be built on public land and will be unaffordable.

The amendment deals with the issue of foreign earnings deduction, FED, and their qualifying criteria. Foreign earnings deduction provides a relief from income tax, of up to €35,000, from a salary of an employee who is tax resident in Ireland and travels out of the State, temporarily, to carry out duties to support firms that endeavour to expand their exports into new markets. It is a measure I support. The employee must spend a minimum of 30 days abroad in a year, with each trip consisting of at least three consecutive days in a qualifying period. The cost of this measure has increased from €800,000 to €5.4 million. One could argue that the increase of the cost is a success because the aim is to support businesses in terms of export markets, and never has that been more important in the aftermath of Brexit.

The issue is that there is no stipulation in respect of the type of activity an employee does to avail of the deduction. For example, an employee could be abroad for 30 days a year, in a qualifying country, but he or she may be carrying out work that could be done at home. Given the cost to the Exchequer, it is important that the activities performed by the FED assignment are export-orientated activities that cannot be undertaken within the State. I say that without suggesting in any way that this is being manipulated or abused. It is our job to look at the criteria and foresee some of these issues. We have all seen how remote and online working have changed how we carry out our activities in recent years.

It is important that the qualifying criteria be reviewed to ensure the policy objective is achieved.

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