Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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259. To ask the Minister for Finance if his attention has been drawn to the delays in the Revenue Commissioners issuing certificates for the employment investment incentive scheme to enable qualifying persons apply for refunds in respect of 2017; the steps being taken to address the issue; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16104/18]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I am aware of the current position regarding the delays in issuing Employment and Investment Incentive (EII) certificates to investors.

Revenue has informed me that the increased complexity of the scheme, arising from changes in Finance Act 2015 and 2017, means that each application takes longer to process than in previous years.  The increased complexity also results in a large number of incomplete applications being made, which in turn increases the volume of correspondence dealt with by the processing team.

To address this, last December Revenue issued a revised application form, which clearly outlines all of the information required, and additional staff members are being assigned to the processing district.  In addition, and as the Deputy may be aware, I announced that a review of EII was to be carried out this year.  The review will examine a range of aspects of the incentive including whether whether the operational design of the scheme can be improved upon. I expect that the review will be completed this summer.