John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 380: To ask the Minister for Social Protection if persons on vocational training opportunities scheme courses are allowed to pay social insurance contributions into the national Social Insurance Fund; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37237/10]

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, 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.

Participation in a Vocational Training Opportunities Scheme (VTOS) course is not, in general, regarded as employment or self-employment. Consequently participants in such courses are not insurable under the PRSI system.

However, subject to certain criteria, credited contributions may be awarded to individuals who are engaged in approved training or educational programmes, such as a VTOS course.

Credited contributions form an integral part of the social insurance system. They are designed to protect the social insurance entitlement record of insured workers who for reasons relating to either incapacity, ill-health, unemployment, professional training or the provision of care, are not in a position to make PRSI contributions.