Sir, - Kevin Myers (December 8th) is perfectly right (as he so often is) in pinpointing the inequity of the PRSI system and the fact that the whingers about the Budget conveniently ignore the need for two employed persons to pay two PRSI contributions - out of after-tax income. Two employer PRSI contributions are also paid. Pay-Related Social Insurance is a misnomer anyway. The small pay-related element of the benefits of that system has long been abolished, and only the contributions were ever properly pay-related in the first place.
Kevin has, however, left out the rest of the equation. When the PRSI-payers come to retirement age, they get two retirement pensions between them, on current figures, £178 per week. When the sole earner and PRSI payer with a stay-at-home spouse comes to retire, he or she will most likely qualify for a dependant's allowance on top of the basic pension, a total of £144.50. If the dependant is over 66, the amount payable is £148.90, or nearly 84 per cent of a working couple's entitlement - all for one PRSI contribution.
If the Minister really wants to help working families, the sensible thing would be to make PRSI contributions fully tax-allowable. Better still, do away with them altogether. - Yours, etc.,
Paul Kenny, Kimmage Road West, Dublin 12.