Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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230. To ask the Minister for Finance the cost of the special assignee relief programme in each of the years since its existence; and the number of employees covered by the scheme in each of these years. [38962/17]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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238. To ask the Minister for Finance the first and full year cost of increasing the year limit for the special assignee relief programme from five years to ten years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39018/17]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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239. To ask the Minister for Finance the first and full year cost of reducing the €75,000 limit to €60,000, €50,000 and €40,000, respectively, for the special assignee relief programme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39019/17]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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240. To ask the Minister for Finance his plans to extend the special assignee relief programme, SARP, to employees employed from outside an organisation rather than restricting it to employees moving within an organization; the cost of increasing the scope of SARP; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39020/17]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 230, and 238 to 240, inclusive, together.

As part of the Special Assignee Relief Programme (SARP) review in 2014, the proposal to include employees that were newly employed from outside an organization rather than restricting it to employees moving within an organization was considered. However, the review found that to include new hires in this manner could cause job displacement in the Irish labour market. If, for example, an Irish tax resident individual and a foreign based individual with similar skills both applied for the same job, it would be less costly for the employer to hire the foreign based individual. This would place the Irish tax resident individual at a considerable disadvantage.

Regarding the potential cost of reducing the €75,000 limit under SARP to €60,000, €50,000 and €40,000, I am advised by Revenue that it is tentatively estimated, without taking account of the potential new employees that may qualify for the scheme as a result of the reduced limits, the cost to the Exchequer in terms of income tax foregone, and based on the employees currently availing of the relief, would be:

1. €60,000 limit: €0.48 million and €0.54 million first and full year cost respectively.

2. €50,000 limit: €0.81 million and €0.91 million first and full year cost respectively.

3. €40,000 limit: €1.13 million and €1.27 million first and full year cost respectively.

In addition to the foregoing, and as the deputies will be aware, the services of my department are available to cost tax policy and other proposals for political parties on a confidential basis. Guidelines have been issued from my department as to the operation of this facility for Budget 2018.

In relation to increasing the eligibility criteria for SARP from 5 years to 10 years, I am advised by Revenue that there are no data on which to estimate the potential impact to the Exchequer of increasing the claim period in this manner. The data on numbers availing of SARP are compiled on a year by year basis; data on the duration each claimant has been claiming for is not readily available, nor is it possible to estimate the number of claimants who would continue to claim relief beyond 5 years should SARP be extended, therefore it is not possible to estimate a cost to the Exchequer for this proposal.

Finally, regarding the cost of the scheme and the number of employees covered by it on an annual basis since it has been available, Revenue reports that provide a detailed analysis of the SARP programme for 2012-2015 are available at: .From these reports, the following table sets out the cost of SARP by year for each the years 2012 to 2015 (the last year for which figures are available).