Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 8 Mar 1994

Vol. 440 No. 1

Written Answers. - Employers' PRSI Exemption Scheme.

Proinsias De Rossa

Question:

53 Proinsias De Rossa asked the Minister for Social Welfare , in regard to the scheme announced in September 1992 which exempted employers from employers PRSI in respect of additional employees taken on between October 1992 and March 1993, the number of employers who have applied for the scheme; the number of new employees in respect of which exemption from employers PRSI has been sanctioned; the number of such employees who are still at work; and the total amount of employers' PRSI foregone under the scheme.

Minister for Social Welfare (Dr. Woods)

The current employers' PRSI exemption scheme, introduced in September 1992, is an incentive to employers to provide full-time job opportunities for unemployed people who are taken on from 19 October 1992 to 5 April 1994. Subject to certain criteria, employers are exempted from paying the employers share of the PRSI contribution in respect of new employees for up to two years for the tax years 1993/94 and 1994/95.

A total of 4,700 applications have been received for the existing scheme and 4,000 unemployed people have been employed to date under the scheme. Information on the number of employees still at work under the scheme and on the amount of employer's PRSI foregone is not available at present. An interim assessment cannot be carried out until late this year when the end of year records for the 1993-94 tax year have been processed. Employers can benefit from the existing scheme up to 5 April 1995. A full assessment will be carried out in late 1995 when the end of year records for 1994/95 have been processed.

In view of the success of the current scheme in creating job opportunities for the unemployed, I have recently announced as part of a PRSI package aimed to generate new jobs, a new PRSI exemption scheme for the tax years 1994/95 and 1995/96 in respect of new jobs created for unemployed people before 6 April 1995.

I am confident that this measure will make a worthwhile contribution to the Government's wide-ranging efforts to combat unemployment.