Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the issues of equity that exists in the operation of the special assignee relief programme, SARP, because it is understandable in the Oireachtas that taxpayers should question why somebody, who is on a very high level of income within our State, should receive additional tax support which, in effect, means they pay less tax.

There are two reasons for this. The first is that if one looks across the world and Europe, we are competing against many other countries which have exactly the same programme available. In fact, in some cases, they even have more generous programmes available. It is vital that our economy is competitive if such schemes are being offered elsewhere, and they are.

Second, a number of Finance Bills ago, I brought in changes to this scheme to cap the cost of it because I had some concern that the level of expense that was being drawn down against SARP was growing at too fast a pace. I have already acted on some of the critique in respect of the operation of the scheme by putting in place a cap on the level of income against which this support can be drawn down, but the main reason a scheme like this is needed is that we are in a very competitive world where the jobs which are on this scheme are sought in many other countries. I have no doubt that if we did not have this scheme available while other countries do, it would result in a loss of jobs and of investment within our economy. That is why I believe this scheme is needed and why this section in the Bill is needed. I thank the Acting Chairman.