Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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128. To ask the Minister for Finance the cost to the Exchequer of the tax saver scheme for public transport users; the number of users of the scheme and the average annual benefit to a user of the scheme in 2014 and in 2015. [3162/16]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The Travel Pass/Taxsaver scheme operates on the basis that an employer pays for the ticket on behalf of an employee, typically at the start of the year, and the payment is then deducted from the employee's emoluments over the course of the year. The incentive operates on the basis that, although such a payment out of an employee's income should be made out of after-tax income, section 118B of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 provides that the remuneration foregone shall be exempt from tax. 

This has the effect of reducing the cost of the ticket to the employee by the amount of tax that would have been paid on the equivalent amount of income at the employee's marginal rate (the highest rate of tax at which the employee is paying tax).  In this way the employee, over the course of a year, only suffers the net cost of the Travel Pass, deducted on a weekly, fortnightly or monthly basis, with the total initial cost met by his or her employer.  Where an employer provides a ticket without charge to an employee, section 118(5A) of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 provides that there is no benefit-in-kind charge on the employee in relation to cost of the Pass.

The travel pass must be issued by an approved transport provider as defined in section 118 (5A) of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997. However neither my Department nor Revenue maintains specific statistics in relation to either the numbers of employees availing of the scheme or the annual average benefit obtained.