The Senator referred to PRSI. With effect from the 2000-01 tax year, all employees covered under classes A, B, C, D, E and H, with reckonable earnings of not more than €287 per week, have been exempt from making an employee social insurance contribution. This was introduced under the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness. If the PRSI exemption threshold was increased to €290.40 per week to facilitate the 2,500 participants currently on the jobs initiative scheme, it would have to be introduced for all employees within the same earnings band. Obviously, the difference would be inequitable and it would discriminate against other categories of low paid workers. The most recent figures available indicate that to implement such a measure would affect approximately 21,300 employees and would cost in the region of €7.1 million in a full year. I have considered the matter and it is not proposed to adjust the threshold at this time. Participants in the jobs initiative scheme are affected by the application of the existing threshold in the same manner as other employees who, upon receiving an increase in reckonable earnings, may move from below the threshold to above it.