Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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131. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she will confirm that no legislation exists to allow certain precedential group/class decisions to be made (details supplied). [24165/24]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Social Welfare legislation provides for the payment of PRSI by way of employment contributions in respect of employment under a contract of service or apprenticeship. Self-employed persons who are employed under a contract for service pay PRSI by way of self-employment contributions.

The Courts have long held that in determining whether a contract of employment is a contract of service or a contract for service the entire facts of the relationship must be looked at.

Decisions with respect to insurability of employment decisions are made through the application of criteria agreed with the Social Partners and published in the Code of Practice on Determining Employment Status. These criteria were developed from a review of a number of cases in the 1990s. The examination of these cases, taking account of case law from the courts, allowed the identification of five criteria that could be used by Deciding Officers and Appeals Officers when making decisions in relation to the correct class of PRSI applying to a worker’s employment. The objective in doing this was to ensure consistency in decision making, something which I am sure the Deputy will accept is a necessary part of public administration.

These criteria are applied by Deciding Officers in my Department and Appeals Officers in the Social Welfare Appeals Office on each occasion that they assess the PRSI status of a worker’s employment. Employment status decisions are not made by the Department or the Social Welfare Appeals Office without an investigation having been carried out into the actual circumstances of the person's employment with each decision being based on the application of the five criteria to those circumstances. Cases where a worker preforming a particular type of occupation is assessed to be either employed or self-employed is not determinative of a decision with respect to the employment of another worker in the same type of occupation.

Separately, the Department is open to taking a ‘sample cases’ approach to determination of insurance classification, using the criteria set out in the Code of Practice for the Determination on Determining Employment Status, in cases involving multiple workers of a single employer. In indicating its openness to this approach, the Department has always stressed that it would only do so where both the employer and the workers concerned agree with the approach and on the basis that each worker can seek, and will always have the option of having, their case determined on an individual basis and will also have the option of appealing any decision on an individual basis.

I trust this clarifies matters for the Deputy.