Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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175. To ask the Minister for Finance if consideration has been given to extending the bank levy to banks that book profits here; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16264/17]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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In accordance with Section 126AA of the Stamp Duties Consolidation Act 1999, an annual levy was imposed on certain financial institutions for each of the years 2014, 2015 and 2016. The levy was charged at 35% of the Deposit Interest Retention Tax (DIRT) paid by a financial institution in 2011 and raised approximately €150 million annually for the Exchequer. In the case of a financial institution where the amount of DIRT in the base year did not exceed €100,000, the levy was not payable.

I am informed by the Office of the Revenue Commissioners that a total of ten financial institutions were registered to pay the bank levy over the period of years 2014, 2015, and 2016. Four of the ten are domestically owned. The ultimate parent company of the remaining six institutions is outside of the State.

In the budget statement two years ago, I announced that I intended to extend the levy for a further five years to 2021. I indicated that the overall yield from the levy would be maintained at €150 million annually but that I would undertake a review of the DIRT based methodology for calculating the levy.

That review, which included a public consultation on the issue, was undertaken by my Department in early 2016. Following that review, I decided that the DIRT based formula should be retained but that the base year for calculating the levy in 2017 and 2018 would be changed from 2011 to 2015. I have also decided to introduce a rolling two-year series of base years which will introduce a new base year of 2017 for calculating the levy in 2019 and 2020 and a new base year of 2019 for calculating the levy in 2021.

An institution's liability to the levy relates to the size of their Irish operation, since the levy is a percentage of their DIRT payment, and does not have regard to whether the institution is domestic or foreign.