Ms Mary Kennedy:

I will respond to Senator Moloney's questions first. It is true that there is no facility to award credits to a self-employed person. A self-employed person gets 52 contributions for his or her year and there are no weeks that one can claw back or that kind of thing. However, an employed person only gets contributions for the weeks they work. They get a credit to maintain his or her record for any weeks that he or she might have been sick or not in employment. It is not exactly a case of comparing like with like. If a self-employed person earns more than €5,000 during the course of the year and makes a payment in respect of that, he or she will receive 52 contributions for that year. That is one of the reasons credits were not available to the self-employed. We are aware that it is a gap in the system. It is something that the advisory group report stated we must examine, and we will be looking at it. I cannot say at this point what the conclusion will be after a full examination on foot of the advisory group's report. Obviously, we are aware of the matter because it has become more of an issue in recent years due to people being out of employment.

Credits maintain a person's social insurance record and one has the option of becoming a voluntary contributor. I appreciate that costs money but the option to become a voluntary contributor is available to anybody who ceases to be in insurable employment or insurable self-employment and, in that way, to maintain one's social insurance record. This area was highlighted in the report as a shortcoming regarding the self-employed and it is something that we must review. We are examining the matter on an ongoing basis. The self-employed have specific issues. Again, no more than the other benefits the report found they did not require, it is something we must examine because different situations apply to the self-employed compared with employees.