Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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271. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if persons who were in paid employment and left their work after they got married to run the family farm with their spouse were eligible to contribute full PRSI to enable them obtain the full State contributory pension; if, where their spouse was paying the full PRSI rate and the spouse will receive the full State pension, it was permitted for both spouses to pay PRSI during these periods to entitle them each to the full State pension; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29764/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Self-employed workers, including farmers, are liable to pay PRSI at the class S rate of 4%, subject to a minimum annual payment of €500, where their annual income exceeds €5,000. Class S contributors are entitled to a range of long-term payments including State pension (contributory), based on their own PRSI contribution record while working. Entitlement to benefits cannot be generated based on someone’s PRSI record, including that of a spouse (other than for the Widow/er’s/Surviving Civil partners’ Contributory Pension).

The status for PRSI purposes, of spouses working in a family business or on a family farm can vary, depending on the circumstances.

Spouses who are engaged in a business partnership are each treated as individual self-employed contributors. Provided each has annual income in excess of the €5,000 threshold, they are individually liable to pay PRSI under Class S. In addition, since 2014, spouses who assist in the business of their self-employed spouse/civil partner performing the same or ancillary tasks and are not a business partner or an employee, can be regarded as a self-employed contributor in their own right.

These contributions enable them to build up an insurance record in their own right and receive accruing benefits including State pension (contributory).

Alternatively, where a family business/farm is incorporated as a limited company, spouses involved in the business pay PRSI contributions either as employees or as self-employed contributors depending on whether a contract of service exists. In addition where a person is an employee of a partnership in which their spouse/civil partner is a partner, he/she pays PRSI contributions as an employee.

Otherwise, a person employed directly by his/her spouse is not liable to pay PRSI, as this is regarded as an “excepted employment” under social welfare legislation which recognises the practical difficulties in establishing the existence of a genuine employment relationship in such circumstances.