Bring industry evidence into policy.

What members reported. The credit was working for companies already claiming it, but the rate had fallen behind competing jurisdictions, and smaller companies were deterred by cash-flow timing, documentation and the cost of making a first claim. Members fed this back through surveys, roundtables and one-to-one conversations.

What IRDG asked for. An increase in the effective rate to 35%, faster phased refunds and a higher initial payment threshold, advance assurance for first-time claimants, higher outsourcing caps and a dedicated R&D technical unit within Revenue.

Route. Response to the Department of Finance public consultation on the R&D Tax Credit and on Options to Support Innovation, 16 May 2025, followed by the IRDG Pre-Budget Submission for Budget 2026 to the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Public Expenditure.

What happened. Finance Act 2025 increased the rate from 30% to 35%, raised the first-year payment threshold from €75,000 to €87,500, and introduced an administrative measure allowing 100% of an R&D employee's emoluments as qualifying costs where at least 95% of their duties are spent on qualifying R&D. The Department received twenty-six submissions to the consultation, all published on its own website, alongside pre-budget submissions from a range of bodies. IRDG was one voice among those; the ask, its date and the outcome are on the record, and no more than that is claimed.

Still open. The dedicated Revenue unit, advance assurance for first-time claimants and the outsourcing caps. All three are carried into the Budget 2027 submission.

What members reported. A large amount of real innovation — AI adoption, design, digitalisation, process and business-model change — falls outside the statutory definition of R&D and therefore attracts no support, even where it is the activity most likely to change a company's productivity.

What IRDG asked for. A distinct Innovation Tax Credit, piloted, sitting alongside rather than inside the R&D Tax Credit, with a separate cap to contain State-aid exposure. Broadened eligibility to cover digital, sustainability and incremental innovation.

Route. The 2025 consultation response and the Budget 2026 submission; restated in the Budget 2027 submission as a 20% refundable credit commencing 1 January 2027.

What happened. The Department of Finance published the R&D Tax Credit and Innovation Compass on 16 February 2026, updated 28 April 2026, which sets out a medium-term pathway and includes the design of a new tax-based support for innovation among the work-streams it identifies. That is a live consideration, not a commitment.

Still open. Everything material — whether the credit is introduced, at what rate, and what qualifies.

What members reported. Ireland's public R&D investment sits below the benchmarks of the countries it competes with for mobile R&D, which limits the collaborative research infrastructure companies can draw on.

What IRDG asked for. A multi-annual increase in Government Budget Allocations for R&D to match international benchmarks. The Budget 2027 submission puts a figure and a timetable on it: begin a three-year trajectory towards 1% of GNI*, informed by EU R&D-intensity benchmarks.

Route. Budget 2026 and Budget 2027 pre-budget submissions.

What happened. No published change to report. Recorded here because a position without a result is still a position, and members are entitled to see it.

Still open. All of it.