Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 142: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the steps being taken to lift the PRSI ceiling. [6307/09]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Under the PRSI system social insurance contributions are compulsorily payable by employers and employed and self-employed workers. Employees contributions are determined by reference to reckonable earnings in a weekly period, and are subject to a range of thresholds and an annual ceiling. Approximately 76 per cent of workers pay PRSI Class A and Class H at the rate of 4 per cent and accrue entitlement to a range of benefits and pensions under various social insurance schemes. Employees with incomes below €352 per week are exempt from paying PRSI. Once they earn above this level their total income, up to the annual ceiling, is chargeable to PRSI but they are entitled to a PRSI-Free Allowance of €127 per week.

The employee PRSI ceiling is reviewed annually in accordance with the legislative stipulations of the Social Welfare (Consolidation) Act, 2005. The legislation requires that changes in the average earnings of workers, as recorded by the Central Statistics Office, be taken into account in this regard. In the 2009 Budget the employee ceiling was increased by €1,300 from €50,700 to €52,000. Any future changes to the PRSI ceiling would have to be considered in a budgetary context.