Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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57. To ask the Minister for Finance the amount income tax relief on pensions cost the Exchequer in 2013; and the percentage of that total of relief benefit to each decile of earners from the highest to the lowest. [18762/14]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that the total tax expenditure in respect of pension contributions for 2011, the latest year for which data are available, is estimated to be in the region of €1,500 million.

These costs include those associated with employee and employer contributions to approved superannuation schemes, exemption of employers contributions from employee benefit in kind taxation, retirement annuity contracts and personal retirement saving accounts. It does not include the costs associated with the exemption of income and gains of approved superannuation funds or tax relief on "tax free" lump sums as the information is not available for 2011. However, the cost for these two reliefs for 2010 is estimated to be in the region of €970 million.

A breakdown of these costs by reference to deciles of incomes could not be provided without undertaking an extensive and costly development of Revenue systems and there would likely be significant additional compliance and administrative costs on employers and others in having to provide much more detailed data than is currently provided. Data in respect of the year 2012 are currently being processed and will be available in due course, while data in respect of 2013 are still being collected or are not required to be returned until later this year.