Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

There is no intention on the part of the State to put anyone at a disadvantage by virtue of their work pattern. However, I understand how that can happen. This is a complicated area. Social insurance is based on contributions, and the pattern of work can affect the number of contributions a person ends up with. The final report of the social partnership working group will be published shortly. It suggested that the situation be monitored closely to ensure work sharers were not unduly disadvantaged by the weekly based system, especially if they sought to pursue other forms of family friendly arrangements, such as parental leave. The working group recommended that data on the impact of work sharing arrangements on social insurance coverage should be collated to inform any future examination and developments.

The Department has published an information booklet which specifically deals with the issue and the interaction of the pattern of weeks of insurable employment and attendance patterns. There are no plans at the moment to do anything. We will await the reports and see whether any improvements can be made. A person who works part time two or three days a week could accumulate 52 contributions in the year, whereas a person who works week-on week-off, depending on the pattern of the week-on week-off arrangement, could end up with only 26 contributions in the year, even though each works a similar number of hours. Most people make their own arrangements if they can by having part-time working arrangements rather than working on a week-on week-off basis. I take the point that people need to be made aware they can do this.

We will further examine how the Department's booklet can be promulgated to a greater extent so that people will be aware that they can improve their ability to get contributions by the way they organise their work pattern. Whether they should have to do that is a broader issue. What is at the heart of the PRSI system is entitlement to contributions. Everyone should be aware that their pattern of work can affect the number of contributions they have if they are not working full-time. We will try to do more to get that message across. In addition, we need to examine the broader issue. I await the final report of the social partnership group.

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