Eoghan Murphy (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)
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Question 118: To ask the Minister for Finance if any adjustment will be made in the future to take into account those who paid their pension levy out of their personal pension. [23722/11]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I assume the Deputy is proposing that the amount of the pension levy passed on to individuals over the period of the levy should be available to them as a credit against their future tax liabilities. The moneys raised from the pension fund levy will be used to pay for the reductions in VAT, PRSI and the air travel tax as well as for the additional expenditure measures announced in the Jobs Initiative in May last. These and the other various measures in the Initiative represent the first steps by this Government towards improving the competitiveness of important sectors of the economy and facilitating the return to work of people currently unemployed.

Given our commitments under the Joint EU/IMF Programme of Financial Support and the current difficulties in the public finances, the Jobs Initiative must be funded on a cost neutral basis. Since the proceeds of the levy are already committed in the manner I've described, a commitment to allow the levy to also be used as a tax credit against future tax liabilities would mean that the Jobs Initiative would not be cost neutral. I cannot therefore agree to the proposal.