Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

The employer job, PRSI, incentive scheme will be commenced in June and will be administered by the Department of Social Protection. Regulation or secondary legislation pertaining to the scheme is in the final stages of preparation, as are details of scheme administration.

The scheme will run for the calendar year 2010 only. However, any qualifying employment created in 2010 will be eligible for the scheme, which will be structured so that employment created prior to the launch can participate for 12 months forward from the time of launch and employment created later in the year will participate for 12 months to the corresponding date in 2011.

To qualify for the scheme the employment will have to constitute an increase in the employer's employed workforce above that applying in the three month period immediately prior to the date of commencement of the additional employee, who will have to have been on the live register for six months or more. In addition, participation in the scheme will be limited to 5% of the employer's existing workforce or five posts, whichever is the greater. The employer will also be required to declare when applying that the employment will be for, on average, 35 hours or more per week. These conditions are designed to prevent displacement from existing full time and part-time positions.

The scheme has not been launched to date as the regulation and administrative arrangements are being put in place. These arrangements are now close to completion and I expect to be launching the scheme in the coming weeks.

In this context it is important to note that jobs created prior to the launch will still be able to benefit from the scheme. For example, in the case of a qualifying employment created prior to the launch of the scheme standard employee and employer PRSI will be paid but, following approval for the scheme, the employer will benefit from a PRSI exemption for 12 months from their date of approval. Rebates of PRSI will not be a feature of the scheme.

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