Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There is an under-used voluntary scheme in existence in Ireland, the class P, under which people can make voluntary contributions but very few do. That is often the difficulty with voluntary contributions. Only small numbers will contribute and the contributions often have to be high to cover the inevitable risk that occurs. When something is voluntary, those who are most likely to avail of it are the ones who are most likely to contribute. That is why universal schemes generally work better and that is why PRSI for employees is not voluntary. I imagine many employees would love it if PRSI was voluntary and they did not have to pay into the fund but the effect of that would be make contributions much higher for those who do and there would be a risk issue in that those more likely to avail of it would be more likely to pay into it. The point could be reached that contributions were so high that nobody would make them.

I was self-employed and I took out voluntary income protection, which is expensive.

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