Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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149. To ask the Minister for Finance the number of persons that have availed of the SARP scheme in each of the years 2016 to 2018 and to date in 2019; and the number projected to avail of the scheme in 2020, 2021 and 2022. [42032/19]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The Special Assignee Relief Programme (SARP) is an income tax incentive designed to help reduce the cost to employers of assigning skilled individuals in their companies from abroad, to take up positions in the Irish-based operations of their employer or an associated company, thereby facilitating the creation of jobs and the development and expansion of businesses in Ireland.

The number of individuals that availed of the SARP scheme in the years 2016 and 2017 (the most recent year for which data are available) is outlined in the table below:

SARP, like all tax expenditure measures, is demand led, and so it is not possible for me to accurately predict future take-up. The extent to which I can rely on retrospective data is limited as it will not reflect the recent changes that I made to the scheme. As the Deputy will be aware, in Finance Act 2018 I re-imposed an upper salary ceiling of €1 million on the relief with effect from 1 January 2019 for new entrants and for existing beneficiaries of the programme from 1 January 2020.