Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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113. To ask the Minister for Finance to set out by year, for each of the years they have been operational, the cost to the Exchequer of the section 23 rented residential relief scheme, the section 50 student accommodation relief scheme and the rural renewal scheme. [33467/16]

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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116. To ask the Minister for Finance to set out in tabular form the number of landlords that have availed of the section 23 tax relief and the number of properties that were subject to section 23 tax relief for each year since the introduction of the relief; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33579/16]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 113 and 116 together.

I am advised by Revenue that the annual cost to the Exchequer of Section 23 Rented Residential Relief tax relief for 2004 to 2014, the latest year for which data are available, are included in their 'Costs of Tax Expenditures (Credits, Allowances and Reliefs)' table located on their webpage at www.revenue.ie/en/about/statistics/tax-expenditures.html. The relevant row in the table is titled "Rented Residential Relief - Section 23". For years prior to 2004, claims for incentive schemes on property were aggregated in tax returns with other claims and could not be separately distinguished. Accordingly data for earlier years are not available.

The Section 23 tax costs show the estimated tax cost relating to the total allowable expenditure in respect of the claims made. Under Section 23, the full amount of the relief must be deducted from the rental income of the particular property in the first year of letting, so the tax cost is shown by the year the claim was first made, despite the potential carry-forward which applied to this measure.

I am further advised that the annual cost to the Exchequer of Section 50 Student Accommodation tax relief and the Rural Renewal Scheme for 2011 to 2014, the years for which data are readily available on these schemes, are included in their 'Certain Property Based Tax Exemptions' table located on their webpage at www.revenue.ie/en/about/statistics/property-exemptions.html.

Due to the manner in which the data are recorded and published, there may be overlap between the costs in two tables cited above (some of the costs shown for the schemes specified are included in the cost for Section 23 relief but it is not possible quantify the exact amount of overlap).

With regard to the second question, the table cited above includes the numbers of claims for Section 23 relief. Information on tax returns is not submitted in a format that allows the number of properties that were subject to Section 23 relief to be separately identified.