I assume that the Deputy is referring to the current annual earnings cap of €115,000, which operates to limit the level of tax-relieved personal pension contributions in any one year. The annual earnings cap acts, in conjunction with age-related percentage limits of annual earnings, to put a ceiling on the annual amount of tax relief an individual taxpayer can obtain on pension contributions.
A breakdown of the cost of tax relief on employee contributions to occupational pension schemes is not available as tax returns by employers of employee contributions to such schemes are aggregated at employer level. An historical breakdown is available by tax rate of the tax relief claimed on contributions to personal pension plans Retirement Annuity Contracts (RACs) and Personal Retirement Savings Accounts (PRSAs) by the self-employed and others, to the extent that the contributions have been included in the personal tax returns of those taxpayers. There is, therefore, only a limited statistical basis for providing definitive figures. However, Revenue advises me that the impact to the Exchequer from reducing the annual earnings cap for individual contributions to occupational pension schemes, RACs and PRSAs may be tentatively estimated. Such estimates take no account of any behavioural impacts that may arise from the proposed changes and that could affect the scale of any yield.
I am informed by Revenue that on the above basis, the estimated yield of reducing the ceiling can be found on page 11 of Revenue's Ready Reckoner, available on Revenue's statistics website at http://www.revenue.ie/en/about/statistics/ready-reckoners.pdf.