Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will provide details of assistance that is available to self employed and returning emigrants, if they find themselves unable to find alternative employment or if their business are not sustainable; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [55098/12]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Self-employed workers are liable for PRSI at the Class S rate of 4% - the same personal rate as is paid by ordinary employees. However, employers also make a PRSI contribution of 10.75% in respect of their employees, resulting in the payment of a combined 14.75% rate per employee under full-rate PRSI Class A. As a result, ordinary employees can build entitlement towards the full range of social welfare benefits. Class S contributions provide cover for long-term benefits such as State pension (contributory) and widow's, widower's or surviving civil partner's pension (contributory) only.

In terms of current supports available to self-employed persons, in certain cases, a self-employed person who had insurable employment in the relevant year and had paid sufficient Class A contributions may qualify for a jobseeker’s benefit payment, provided all the conditions of the scheme are satisfied.

A self-employed person who has paid insufficient Class A contributions may instead qualify for jobseeker’s allowance. Jobseeker’s allowance is a means-tested payment and in assessing a person’s means for the purposes of this allowance, account is taken of all income which the person may reasonably expect to receive during the succeeding year. In general, this means assessment will take account of the level of earnings in the last twelve months in determining their expected income for the following year. In the current climate, account is taken of the economic situation and it is accepted that future earnings may be lower than those of previous years. The process also recognises the potential for significant upward or downward variations in income from one year to the next.

It should also be noted that EU/EEA regulations provide that periods of social insurance in one Member State may be credited to a worker's social insurance record in another Member State to facilitate qualification for Jobseeker’s Benefit. In this regard, the person must have been covered by a period of social insurance in the other country and the person must have paid at least one reckonable contribution since the date they last arrived in Ireland.