Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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Question 134: To ask the Minister for Finance the amount of revenue that could be raised by standardising pension tax relief at the lower rate of tax on all public and civil service workers. [26965/11]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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A breakdown of the cost of tax relief on employee contributions to occupational pension schemes is not available by income tax rate or by reference to occupational categories, as tax returns by employers to the Revenue Commissioners of employee contributions to such schemes are provided on an aggregated basis. An historical breakdown is available by tax rate of the tax relief claimed on contributions to personal pension plans - Retirement Annuity Contracts (RACs) and Personal Retirement Savings Accounts (PRSAs) - by the self-employed and others, to the extent that the contributions have been included in the personal tax returns of those taxpayers. There is, therefore, no statistical basis for providing definitive figures. However, by making certain assumptions about the available information, the Revenue Commissioners inform me that the estimated overall full year yield to the Exchequer from confining tax relief to the standard rate of 20% in respect of individual contributions to occupational pension schemes, RACs and PRSAs would be about €500 million.

Because of the limitations on available data however, as outlined above, it is not possible to disaggregate this estimated yield as between the public and private sector.