Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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75. To ask the Minister for Finance if the new KEEP share options scheme for SMEs has the same threshold for granting share options up a level similar to the UK's enterprise incentives scheme. [45596/17]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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In Budget 2018 I introduced the Key Employee Engagement Programme (KEEP) with the objective of supporting SMEs in Ireland in competing with larger enterprises to recruit and retain key employees. Share options can provide key employees with a financial incentive linked to the success of the company and may improve the attractiveness of an SME employment offer.

A restriction is placed at company level which limits the market value of issued but unexercised KEEP share options to €3,000,000. It is my understanding that the UK Enterprise Management Incentive (EMI) scheme, which is similar in nature to the KEEP, specifies that the market value of shares subject to unexercised EMI options granted by a company or group cannot exceed stg £3,000,000.