Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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1. To ask the Taoiseach the number of persons that availed of and the costs incurred by his Department regarding the cycle to work scheme since it was introduced to date by year and cost in tabular form. [9990/20]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Since the introduction of the Cycle to Work scheme in January 2009, 100 applications have been made by staff of my Department. There is no discernible cost to my Department's vote in administering the Cycle to Work scheme, as the bicycles and equipment are paid for by way of salary sacrifice by those acquiring the bicycles. There are minor costs in processing forms and in carrying the up-front costs until such time as those are offset by the gradual deductions from salary. Neither of these is quantifiable. The only material cost of the scheme to the State is the tax relief inherent in the scheme.

The total amount sanctioned to date by way of bicycle purchases for staff of my Department is €77,279.69 which is in turn recouped from staff by way of salary deductions. The following table shows the number of applications and the breakdown of amounts sanctioned by year.