Budgetary Oversight Committee report calls for Department to review tax expenditures & put sunset clauses in place

Read the report here

Committee Chair, Colm Brophy TD, said, “The Committee notes that approximately 87% of all tax expenditures do not have a sunset clause, and that 23% of all tax expenditures have never been reviewed. This Committee report recommends that the Department of Finance prepares a report giving detailed reasons as to why sunset clauses were not attached to these tax expenditure measures on the Department’s list.”

“One of the main issues highlighted in our hearings on this subject was that tax expenditures account for a high level of revenue foregone. The Committee has prepared this report with the aim of assisting the Government in identifying how to make the review of tax expenditures a regular feature of the budget scrutiny cycle and to sharpen our ability to identify instances when these measures are no longer cost-effective or fit for purpose.”