John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I know, as most people do, that Revenue has no wriggle room in terms of refunds beyond four years but, on the other hand, there is always wriggle room to chase up unpaid taxes. This is understandable but it should work both ways. I realise that in the context of this Topical Issue debate, we will not be able to change the four-year rule. I will endeavour to speak with the Minister and the Minister of State afterwards and ask them to ensure that this anomaly is flagged when people are considering contributing to the ARF, and that it will become mandatory for the insurer taking these contributions to notify those who will be in receipt of an annual income from this source of less than €5,000, that a PRSI contribution is not required.

I note from the Minister of State's response that self-employed contributors are entitled to receive a wide range of social insurance benefits. I know that PRSI contributions fall under all sorts of different categories, but several benefits that are available to other PRSI contributors, such as dental and other benefits, are not available to the self-employed.

I return to the original issue raised. The person I referred to was not self-employed. They worked in different pay as you earn, PAYE, jobs but for the purposes of calculations, they effectively became self-employed when they used part of their income for the ARF 12 years ago. This put them into a new category that they we not previously aware of. The Department should be to the fore in resolving that lack of clarity and information.

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