Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 183: To ask the Minister for Finance the basis for his estimation that the pension levy would raise €1.4 billion; and the details of the calculations involved. [6329/09]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I have estimated that the pension related deduction will realise €1.35bn in a full year; the remainder of the €1.4bn will be found through a reduction in travelling and subsistence rates and other adjustments. The public service pay and pensions bill, excluding pensions and PRSI, is approximately €16.7bn. The proposed deduction will average 7.5%, yielding some €1.25bn. It is estimated that the application of the deduction in the local authority area — which is outside of the public service pay and pensions bill — will yield a further €100m.

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 184: To ask the Minister for Finance the reason he has not provided details of the cost of the tax relief on self-administered pension schemes in view of the fact that details of all such schemes must be supplied to the Revenue Commissioners on their establishment and at regular intervals thereafter; and if he will request the Revenue Commissioners to provide details of the value of the 6,500 schemes which are currently in existence, the total contributed by employers and the cost of the tax relief on these schemes for each of the past three years. [6330/09]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that the current requirements that apply to small self-administered pensions schemes as regards documentation to be supplied to Revenue are as follows:

1. A detailed approval application is submitted to which approval is given following satisfactory examination and clarification of the application.

2. Annual accounts are submitted.

3. An actuarial review is submitted every 3 years. The information provided in this documentation is used for the purpose of managing and reviewing the pension schemes in question on a case by case basis.

The data provided are not at present electronically captured in such a way as to provide a dedicated basis for compiling the statistical information requested by the Deputy. To obtain this information it would be necessary to manually extract data from the documentation submitted and would also require checking the tax position of each individual employer and employee, thereby necessitating manual examination of 19,500 sets of accounts for the last 3 years, 6,500 actuarial reviews, 6,500 employer tax records and at least 6,500 employee tax records. The specific information requested could not, therefore, be obtained without conducting a protracted examination of the Revenue Commissioners' records.