Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Question 375: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the expected yield in 2010 and 2011 from an increase of 1% in the rate of employees PRSI; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25369/10]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Question 376: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the expected yield in 2010 and 2011 from an increase of 1% in the rate of employers PRSI; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25370/10]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Question 377: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the expected yield in 2010 and 2011 from an increase of 1% in the rate of PRSI for self-employed persons; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25371/10]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Question 378: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the expected yield in 2010 and 2011 from the abolition of the PRSI ceiling; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25372/10]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Question 420: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the annual cost of the PRSI allowance for each of the past five years and the amount of revenue that could be raised in 2011 and in a full year if the PRSI allowance was reduced by half or abolished; and if he will set out the rationale for the PRSI allowance. [25359/10]

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 375 to 378, inclusive, and 420 together.

The following table provides figures on the estimated revenue that would have been gained if the €127 PRSI free allowance for PRSI Class A contributors for the years 2006 to 2010 had been abolished and an estimated yield if the allowance were abolished for the full year 2011. The cost of the €127 PRSI free allowance over the last five years is not available.

PRSI estimates for part years are not produced. The most recent full year estimates for PRSI yields are set out in the following table.

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 379: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the PRSI classes under which rental income is a chargeable item; and the way in which this is set down in legislation. [25018/10]

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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The payment of PRSI primarily relates to income derived from reckonable earnings from employment or self-employment. The Commission on Taxation has recommended a further widening of the PRSI base so that unearned income such as investment income, rental income and share based remuneration should be subject to PRSI.

In regard to unearned income at present, self employed contributors pay PRSI on rental income at PRSI class S. In addition, while employed contributors are not generally subject to PRSI on rental income, there is a liability where the individual concerned also has trade, professional or partnership income. In these cases the individual is required to pay PRSI as a self employed contributor on rental income. On this basis a significant amount of rental income is already subject to PRSI. Reckonable income in relation to a self-employed contributor is defined in section 2, as amended, of the Social Welfare (Consolidation) Act, 2005.