Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

This is really unfortunate because we are going with the Minister on this. This an attempt to extend the application and to ensure that the knowledge box is not just available to international companies but to Irish companies too.

In principle, we are already recognising that it is important that there be benefit in Ireland so I find it of concern that we will not have any information whereby we can evaluate the scheme. I understand that we will get other information but it is very reasonable to ask the Minister to go back to her officials on this. I ask her to reconsider because we want to support the Bill but I would find it very hard to support if there is to be no record of where the companies that have benefitted from it are located.

Nobody is asking for their secrets or details of what is novel and so on. Maybe we could do it by county or by region. There might be 20 in Munster and 40 in the west, or something like that. It is our job as national legislators to get a sense of how patterns are working. If there is a significant public expense it is important to have a sense of how its benefits are being distributed. I urge the Minister to consider it again between now and Report Stage as it is a small piece of transparency. I am sure people will be willing to work on it to find a solution in the interim.