Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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141. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if her Department has or will pay full PRSI contributions for all those who were in receipt of the pandemic unemployment payment over the course of the past two years; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [15495/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Amongst the actions taken by Government to mitigate the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic was a provision to attribute social insurance contributions, for a period that may be prescribed, to employed contributors who were beneficiaries of certain Covid-19 income support payments including the pandemic unemployment payment. Such contributors have social insurance contributions attributed to them at the same value as they were paying while employed immediately before going on that payment.

The legislation underpinning the measure makes provision for the Minister for Social Protection, with the consent of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform and having considered certain matters set out in the legislation, to prescribe the number of self-employment contributions to be attributed to self-employed contributors who were entitled to and in receipt of the pandemic unemployment payment.

Self-employed contributors have a period of time following the end of the contribution year to remit and pay their social insurance liability for that contribution year. For example, self-employed contributors have until the end of October 2022 to file their self-assessment tax returns for 2021, including the payment of social insurance contributions where they are liable to do so for that year.

Contributions have been attributed for the 2020 contribution year in respect of employed and self-employed contributors who were entitled to and in receipt of the pandemic unemployment payment in 2020. The process to attribute contributions to employed contributors who were entitled to and in receipt of the pandemic unemployment payment in 2021 is scheduled to be undertaken in the coming months. The matter of the attribution of contributions in respect of self-employed contributors for the 2021 contribution year will be considered, taking account of the matters set out in the underpinning legislation, towards the end of this year.

I trust that this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.