221 Mr. Garland asked the Minister for Social Welfare the reason part-time workers have been excluded from the PRSI exemption scheme for employers; if his attention has been drawn to the fact that employers must pay full PRSI on all workers earning £25 per week; that many sole traders begin by employing one part-timer and expanding from that base; his views on whether these very small businesses would be helping by including all part-timers earning £25 per week and over in this scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

The purpose of the PRSI exemption scheme is to encourage employers to take on additional employees from the Live Register. It is a condition of the scheme that the job should be for at least 20 hours per week.

The scheme is directed primarily at giving an incentive to employers to provide full-time job opportunities for unemployed people. I am not satisfied that the same level of incentive is required in the case of employers taking on part-time workers. Furthermore, if the exemption were extended to all part-time workers, the cost of the scheme would escalate without a corresponding direct effect on the Live Register.