Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 17 February 2026
482. Deputy Shónagh Ní Raghallaigh asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance the measures he is taking to reform the system of tax expenditures and to strengthen tax evaluation practices within his Department, so as to ensure that the billions in revenue foregone annually is subject to robust scrutiny and demonstrably effective in achieving stated policy objectives; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12433/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraI note the Deputy’s question on tax expenditures.
My Department remain committed to improving the monitoring, reporting and evaluation of tax expenditures in Ireland.
It has been well established internationally that tax expenditures routinely suffer from a lack of transparency, and my Department have taken a number of measures in recent years to address this. Last year, as part of the annual Tax Strategy Group (TSG), my Department published a paper detailing recent changes in this area. The paper is available at: www.gov.ie/en/department-of-finance/collections/budget-2026-tax-strategy-group-papers/.
It will be of interest to the Deputy, that my Department report on tax expenditures annually. The most recent of such reports – ‘Tax Expenditures in Ireland – 2025 Report’, was published in July 2025. In addition, last year, my Department published the first iteration of the ‘Tax Expenditure Passports’, which provide a one-page summary, or ‘passport’, of each tax expenditure in Ireland. It is intended to update this document annually. This summary outlines the policy objective or market failure addressed by each tax expenditure, the results of the most recent evaluation, and, where available, the cost and number of beneficiaries.
Tax expenditures are evaluated in accordance with my Department’s Tax Expenditure Evaluation Guidelines. These were most recently updated in 2024, to reflect international best practice and following on key learnings from over fifty tax expenditure evaluations carried out since the publication of the first set of these Guidelines in 2014. Evaluations are published on my Department’s website, and are typically published either as part of the annual TSG papers, or, alongside Budget day documentation. For example, last year, reviews of the Foreign Earning’s Deduction, the Reduced Rate of USC for Medical Card Holders, and the Special Assignee Relief Programme were published on Budget day.
The Guidelines outline the criteria that should be considered in both ex-ante and ex-post reviews of tax expenditures, as well providing guidance on how often tax expenditures should be evaluated, and the level of scrutiny involved in each evaluation.
The Guidelines, Passports, and most recent report are available on my Department’s website at: www.gov.ie/en/department-of-finance/publications/tax-expenditures-publications-and-guidelines/.
