John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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215. To ask the Minister for Finance if he will provide a breakdown by county of the number of applications received and approved under the cycle to work scheme each year since its introduction. [47968/14]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The cycle to work scheme came into operation on 1 January 2009. With a view to keeping the scheme simple and reducing administration on the part of employers, there is no notification procedure for employers involved. Accordingly, the Revenue Commissioners do not have statistics on the uptake of the scheme and a county level breakdown is not available.

The scheme operates on a self-administration basis, and relief is automatically available provided the employer is satisfied that the conditions of their particular scheme meet the requirements of the legislation. The purchase of bicycles and associated safety equipment by employers for employees or directors is subject to the normal Revenue audit procedure with the normal obligations on employers to maintain records (e.g. delivery dockets, invoices, payments details, etc.).

It was estimated at the time of the introduction of the scheme that approximately 7,000 employees would avail of it over the first five-year period of its operation at a cost of €0.4 million in a full year. However anecdotal evidence would suggest that the scheme has been considerably more successful than this.