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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 1 Jul 2003

Vol. 570 No. 2

Written Answers. - Social Insurance Fund.

Paul McGrath

Ceist:

570 Mr. P. McGrath asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the contributions to, the expenditure from, and the deficit and surplus of the social insurance fund for each of the past five years. [18808/03]

Paul McGrath

Ceist:

571 Mr. P. McGrath asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the payments made from the social insurance fund in each of the past five years which were not paid to persons based on their payments into that fund. [18810/03]

I propose to take Questions Nos. 570 and 571 together.

The income and expenditure of the social insurance fund for the years 1998 to 2002 are contained in the following table:

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998

€000

€000

IEP000

IEP000

IEP000

Provisional Outturn

Provisional Outturn

Income

4,798,461

4,306,355

2,934,447

2,487,566

2,139,902

Expenditure

5,013,768

3,676,189

2,591,902

2,218,736

2,085,803

S.I. Surplus (Deficit)

(215,307)

630,166

342,545

268,830

54,099

The social insurance fund finances benefits, pensions and related services to individuals on the basis of contributions which they, or in some instances, their spouses, have paid or have had credited to them.
The fund has shown a surplus of contribution income over expenditure in recent years, following a long period when expenditure exceeded income and the deficit had to be made good by the Exchequer. The Social Welfare (No 2) Act 2001 provided for the transfer of €635 million from the surplus in the fund back to the Exchequer.
The National Training Act 2000 provided for the establishment of a new training fund to be funded by a levy on employers of 0.7%. In anticipation of the establishment of the levy, the employer's contribution to the social insurance fund was reduced by 0.7% from the beginning of 2000. However, as the training levy came into effect late in 2000 the Act provided for the transfer of £120 million from the social insurance fund to the national training fund for the first year of operation.
No other exceptional payments have been made from the fund in recent years.
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