Tax Code
Dail Éireann — 2025-12-09
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Simon Harris (FG), Wicklow

I was checking the figure on the R and D tax credit while the two Deputies were speaking. Some 87.5% of claimants of the R and D tax credit are SMEs, so while the greater quantum is claimed by FDI because of the size of FDI, the overwhelming number of applications is coming from SMEs. That shows it is working and has the potential to work even better.
I would make the point that we raised the thresholds in the Finance Act 2024. Both Deputies made the point but, in the past, we have done that. Of course, there are issues that can be considered in future budgets.
Both Deputies will understand that I have been Minister for Finance for a couple of weeks and that we have yet to pass the Finance Bill for this year's budget. I am not going to speculate on what will potentially be in the next one, other than to say that we can have useful debates and discussions and tease through these issues over the course of the year in the House, at committees and through parliamentary question sessions and the like, in advance of future budgets. We all want to pursue pro-enterprise policies. We have to back indigenous business. We have to continue to make our economy competitive and make it a good place to invest. We are reliant on FDI for many reasons, and those companies also benefit from being located here. However, the backbone of the Irish company has always been our indigenous industry. We all need to work together to see how we can best support that.
On the wage subsidy scheme more broadly, I am conscious that the Chair of the Oireachtas social protection committee, Deputy John Paul O’Shea, is the Acting Chair. We have published the new national disability strategy and the human rights strategy. There is a real focus in that strategy, rightly, on employment for people with disabilities.
The first meeting of the oversight group was yesterday. Deputy Heneghan's PA, Michael Reynolds, does an excellent job. I am sure good work could be done through the Oireachtas committees and through that new strategy on how we help more people with a disability to get into the workforce and how we help more businesses to hire and employ people with a disability who can make a very good contribution to their businesses. I will ask the Minister, Deputy Calleary, to link with the Deputy.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-12-09/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:26+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-09