Michael D'Arcy (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That is what I am trying to provide. When I am in different parts of the world trying to encourage companies to come to Ireland to establish operations, the biggest criticism I hear relates to the early point at which people pay the higher rate of tax rather than the actual rate. Companies understand the higher rate, but the point at which one hits it in this jurisdiction is the second earliest in the OECD. That is a real issue. People do not get the opportunity to take home as much as their counterparts in other jurisdictions. This scheme is one method by which we can entice people to earn and take home a little bit more. Similar schemes have been established in other jurisdictions. Our figure of €10 million is based on the UK statistics, from which we tried to extrapolate based on the relative sizes of our economies. It is a projection. Everything we do is measured in line with what the Senator is requesting. We are not going to see this scheme start, grow legs, be out the door and start to cost hundreds of millions of euro. I assure the Senator that will not happen and that the budgetary figure we have factored in is €10 million. I will read the note.