Mr. Brian Duff:

Both the Chair and Deputy Ó Cathasaigh raised the issue of costs to employers due to a range of new measures that have come in through various means in recent times. Part of the picture now are the envisaged PRSI increases over the coming five years. The first point is that the PRSI increases are described as gradual and incremental over the five-year period, and are to be modest in effect. It is accepted, with all of the other things happening, that there is a potential cumulative effect. There was a recommendation from the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council that Government would look at the joint impact of all of these developments on employment and employers. This is being led by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment with regard to living wage, statutory sick pay, the new public holiday on St. Brigid's Day and the right to request remote work. In the Department of Social Protection the input is coming from parents' leave and benefit and automatic pension enrolment. Added to that now are the PRSI increases over the coming five years. Work is going on at the moment between the two Departments to look at how Ireland compares internationally in this regard, and what the overall impact is on business and the economic environment. There have been meetings with various stakeholders, including union and business representatives. Work is well advanced and the outputs will hopefully be available in the near term.

In the EU context employer PRSI is lower than average. There can be difficulties comparing like with like between different jurisdictions when it comes to PRSI, whether on the employee or employer side because of differences between what is covered under social insurance schemes, etc. However, the average EU rate for employer PRSI is 19.5%, compared with the two rates of 8.8% and 11.05% in Ireland.

The final question was specifically about the cumulative cost of these increases for employers over the five years. The cost for the first 0.1% in October this year, included in the opening statement, is approximately 90 cent per week for the employer on the average wage. The total of the five increases will be an €6.30 for the employer by the time we reach 2028. That is a total of €327 annually compared with the weekly rate.