Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 164: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if she will extend occupational injury cover to self-employed people or another protection to deal with accidents; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [12752/09]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Workers are insured under the Social Welfare Acts as either employed or self-employed contributors. All workers, both employed and self-employed, are obliged to pay PRSI contributions as a percentage of their personal reckonable income.

The range of benefits and pensions to which different groups of workers may establish entitlement reflects the risks associated with the nature of their work. This in turn reflects the rate of contribution payable. Self-employed people aged between 16 and 66 years are liable for PRSI at the Class S rate of 3% and are consequently eligible for a narrower range of benefits than general employees who, together with their employers, pay a total social insurance contribution of 14.05%, excluding levies, under the full-rate PRSI Class A. These contributions provide entitlement to a range of contingency-based payments under various social insurance schemes.

PRSI Class S contributors are entitled to the following payments:

the Widow's or Widower's (Contributory) Pension;

the Guardian's Payment (Contributory);

the State Pension (Contributory);

Maternity Benefit;

Adoptive Benefit, and

the Bereavement Grant.

Self-employed workers are not insured against short-term benefits such as illness and jobseeker's payments. Neither are they covered for Injury Benefit which is one of the benefits available under the Occupational Injuries Scheme. This reflects the need for coverage for various contingencies, the rate of contributions that self-employed persons pay, the practicalities of administering and controlling access to benefit payments, and the annualised system of contributions that these same persons enjoy.

A system of separate arrangements for employed and self-employed workers within a social insurance context is common in other European social protection systems.

There are no immediate plans to expand coverage for Class S contributors. However, they may qualify for the means tested Disability Allowance if the illness/injury is expected to last for at least one year.