Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 24 January 2019
237. Deputy Thomas Pringle asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the number and value in euros of applications under the ACA scheme administered by the SEAI in 2018, by county in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3555/19]
View answer241. Deputy Thomas Pringle asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the number and value of applications under the SEAI ACA scheme in 2018 by county in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3620/19]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 237 and 241 together.
The Accelerated Capital Allowance (ACA) is a tax incentive scheme that promotes investment in energy efficient products & equipment. The scheme is available to companies and unincorporated businesses which incur expenditure on approved energy efficient equipment for use in their trade. Products eligible under the scheme are included in a list of energy-efficient equipment approved by this Department and maintained by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI). Revenue administer the scheme, in which companies can claim the allowance through their Return of Income Form CT1. The information currently returned to Revenue by taxpayers in relation to the ACA scheme gives an indication of the cost of the scheme to the Exchequer and the tax benefit to taxpayers.
My department is however not in a position to provide more detailed information on the uptake of the scheme as this information resides with Revenue and not with my Department. I understand that there is currently no legislative basis for Revenue to share information that is returned to Revenue by taxpayers with Government departments beyond aggregate statistics.
The most recent aggregate data, as published on Revenue's website, is for 2016 and shows a total of 71 claims with a combined value of allowances claimed of €0.9m. This information can be accessed on page 2 at the following link under the heading "Capital Allowances Used (Energy Efficient Capital Allowance only)".
https://www.revenue.ie/en/corporate/documents/statistics/tax-expenditures/costs-tax-expenditures.pdf.
