Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. I do not have a script. It is not my style to read scripts but to come into this House and try to push and promote issues that are dear to my heart and that of my constituents.

The Minister has responsibility for class K contributions. I wish to speak briefly about a whole group of elected public representatives, city and county councillors, across the country who pay PRSI at a rate of 4% for a class K premium policy contribution and have absolutely no cover. Quite frankly, that is unfair and something needs to be done about it. I acknowledge and thank the Minister for a letter I received from him this morning on the matters I raised and I thank him for going into such detail.

In simple terms, many councillors are barely surviving on an income of €15,000 to €16,000 in the entire household. This is a fact which has been proved by research done by both local authority representative bodies which work with them. One can see the difficulty. They receive absolutely no benefit. This has been discussed by various people but nothing has happened. There are 42 new Members in the House, many of whom were councillors. All parties and none know what it is like and they have commitments to do something. It is important that we do something on the basis of fairness. Some people might say it is not politically correct or that there is a whole range of other issues. I pay tribute to what the Minister has done in his report. I am not here to take issue with that as he is doing a good job. However, it is important that we do not shy away and do not hide under the bed in promoting our own profession and the difficulties that members have. People are dipping into their housekeeping money to subsidise their community work, the work they do up and down this country for communities. I am not talking about remuneration; I am speaking about the class K initiative. Will something happen? This has gone on for too long. The Minister is in a key position to do something. I have no doubt from his correspondence that he is committed to doing something.

I wish to raise two issues from the Minister's letter. It states:

City and County Councillors are regarded to be public office holders for PRSI purposes and as such, are liable to pay the Class K contribution regardless of age. Public office holders pay PRSI at the Class K rate of 4% on their income as an office holder, provided that income exceeds €5,200 a year (€100 a week). Public office holders with weekly income of €100 or less should be returned at class M.

At the end of his letter, he mentions various options - there are options. It is not as simple as that. Some people may wish to opt into another class as some people are self-employed while some may have other incomes. However, there are groups of councillors in this country who are struggling to survive and to provide for their households and I want something to be done about it. That is a bigger issue for the Minister, Deputy Simon Coveney. In terms of class K, will the Minister for Social Protection take this issue on board? I appreciate he is engaged in ongoing discussions with the representative bodies, for which I thank him, but will he indicate today where this issue is going and when he expects a conclusion to this ongoing debate.