Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Much of what I wish to say has been said by other Members, so I will not repeat the valid and useful points made. However, there are a number of matters that I hope to highlight to the Minister. I support the motion and I thank Senator Butler for tabling it. He articulated his point very well. In fact, all Members, although they had slightly nuanced positions, are sympathetic to the idea that if one pays into something one should get something and if one does not, one should not.

I am sure that by now the Minister is familiar with all of the rates of PRSI and how they are calculated, although I will not be testing him on that. Having 11 rates is quite complicated, and within that there are various credits, tiers and so forth. We must be honest enough to state that PRSI is no longer pay related social insurance at all. It is not pay related social insurance because it is applied to everything, including unearned income, rent, dividends and various other things. We should tell everybody that it is no longer pay related social insurance but income related, or whatever other term one wishes to use, social insurance. It is no longer applied to one's salary cheque or one's earned income from one's main employment or income source. The self employed pay class 5 which is 4%. I take the point the previous Minister in the Department of Social Protection made that the cost is 14.75%, but the employer pays 10.75% of that-----