Written Answers. - Parliamentary Debates - Houses of the Oireachtas

[Deputy Seán Kenny.]
Questions— 14 February 2012. Written Answers
off licences issued in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and to date in 2012; and if he will make a statement
on the matter. [8220/12]
Minister for Finance (Deputy Michael Noonan): I am advised by the Revenue Commissioners
that the numbers of beer, wine and spirits off licences issued for the calendar years 2008, 2009,
2010, 2011 and to date in 2012 are as follows:
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
Numbers Numbers Numbers Numbers Numbers
Issued Issued Issued Issued Issued
Spirit Retailer’s Off Licence 1,487 1,770 1,537 1,722 57
Beer Retailer’s Off Licence 1,525 1,779 1,541 1,732 58
Wine Retailer’s Off Licence 3,718 3,705 3,206 3,405 136
Total 6,730 7,254 6,284 6,859 251
These licences are issued either singularly such as “Wine Retailer’s Off Licence” or in combinations
such as Spirits and/or beer, and/or wine. Off licences can also be issued in combination
with Wholesale Dealer licences. Therefore, the above figures reflect the actual number of each
category of licence issued and cannot be taken to reflect either numbers of licensees or premises.
The second issue to note is that as the figures above relate to the calendar year and not
the licence year, which runs from 1st October to 30th September, it is possible for a licensee
to be reflected twice in the above figures. The Deputy may be interested to note that statistical
annual data of this nature is available on the Revenue Commissioners website www.revenue.ie
and the link to specific data in relation to excise is at:
http://www.revenue.ie/en/about/publications/statistical/2010/index.html Current year data regarding
liquor licences, which includes premises and licensee information and is updated on a
monthly basis, is available to the public at: http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/excise/index.html
The most recent publication is as of 7th February 2012.
Tax Code
175. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Finance his views on the belief that
there are 270,000 persons awaiting mortgage relief as announced in budget 2012; and if he will
make a statement on the matter. [8237/12]
Minister for Finance (Deputy Michael Noonan): As announced in the Budget, the proposed
new 30% rate of tax relief in respect of interest paid on qualifying homes for first time buyers
who took out their first qualifying home loan in the period between 2004 and 2008, both dates
inclusive, comes into effect as regards the 2012 tax year and subsequent tax years. As with
many of the reliefs announced in the Budget this comes into effect when the Finance Bill,
which was published last week, is enacted. I should point out that mortgage interest tax relief,
including the proposed new 30% rate of relief, in respect of interest paid on qualifying home
loans is given by qualifying lending agencies, including local authorities, through the tax relief
at source (TRS) system. This requires the various lending agencies to make the adjustments in
their computer systems.
In advance of the passing of the Finance Act, I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners
that they have been in ongoing contact with all qualifying lenders, some 132 in total, to ensure
that the necessary software changes to the lenders’ tax relief at source (TRS) systems are made
to cater for the new 30% rate of tax relief so that, when the Finance Bill is passed into law,
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