Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Question 51: To ask the Minister for Finance his plans to sign the commencement order bringing section 13 of the Finance Act 2011 into effect. [5174/11]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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Section 13 of the Finance Act 2011 provides for income tax relief at the standard rate for expenditure incurred by individuals on a range of works that are carried out to improve the energy efficiency of residential premises situated in the State. Relief will be available for qualifying expenditure of up to a maximum of €10,000 for single individuals, or up to a maximum of €15,000 per qualifying property. The scheme will be operated primarily by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, in conjunction with the Revenue Commissioners. The maximum amount of expenditure that will qualify for relief in any one tax year is €150 million. Relief will be given by way of repayment in the tax year following that in which the work was completed and the expenditure incurred.

Due to the truncated timetable for Finance Bill 2011, it was not possible to consider a number of potential legislative amendments to the scheme. These will be addressed in the next Finance Bill. In addition, the previous Minister made a commitment to publish an Ex-Ante Economic Impact Assessment of the scheme before commencing it via Ministerial order. My officials are currently working on this assessment and it will be published as soon as it has been completed.

Pending the completion of the assessment and the introduction of the legislative changes required in the next Finance Bill, it is not possible to indicate when a Commencement Order bringing section 13 of the Finance Act 2011 into effect will be signed.