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MICHAEL NOONAN has defended his decision in PRSI to raise the minimum PRSI contributions paid by self-employed workers, and scrap a tax-free allowance for employees, in Budget 2013.
Measures announced yesterday will see employees whose gross weekly pay is above €352 per week – which includes almost all full-time workers – have to pay an extra €5.08 per week in PRSI, as they can no longer have some of their income declared PRSI-free.
The minimum annual PRSI contribution for self-employed workers, meanwhile, is to be increased from €253 to €500 – the equivalent of €4.75 per week.
PRSI income is ringfenced and put into the Social Insurance Fund, which is used to pay for welfare payments such as jobseeker’s allowance and child benefit.
“People on high incomes pay in more [in PRSI] than they’ll ever get out” in terms of social benefits, Noonan explained on RTÉ’s Today with Pat Kenny.
“Somebody on law pay – somebody on €25,000 – an extra €5 a week [from them], to replenish the social welfare fund, will guarantee their benefits but in particular their contributory pension,” he said.
“It’s about the best value for €5 that anyone can ever get,” he said.
The increase for the self-employed had similar benefits, he said.
€500 a year, to guarantee you a contributory pension, is the best value anyone will ever get in this world.
Noonan said that the Social Insurance Fund, which is currently running at a deficit because of the lower-than-expected number of people in work and the higher numbers claiming social welfare, needed to be replenished.
“You can’t really swap [PRSI increases] for other tax measures, because other tax measures don’t go into the Social Insurance Fund,” he said.
Public expenditure minister Brendan Howlin added that while the abolition of the PRSI-free allowance for employees was one way of getting the “significant replenishment” that the fund needed, other measures had also been introduced.
“Unearned income from rental, consultants fees, private income fees, will be taken into the net of PRSI,” Howlin said.
Income from those sources was previously not liable for PRSI.
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Some pillock with a pocket laser I bet. Seems this is a relatively common occurrence these days. Rare for the plane to turn around though.
True. And the plane would have been at 8000 to 10000 feet high a few mins out when hit bit the laser and was cruising to the West of Ireland when it turned around and went back to Heathrow.
I’d imagine this would not be the standard laser pointer you would buy in the local but someone with a stronger toy. It would also appear the crew / company made to the decision to turn back prior to Atlantic crossing as the pilot must have been in some sort of discomfort.
A medical issue? Rather odd statement I would have thought
Getting a laser in the eye? That can cause blurred vision. I’d call that medical
Yes paddy, pilots tend to rely on their vision from time to time
Someone should develop a new anti laser filter for Aircraft Windows.
Well it depends. A lot of pens in the green are frequency doubled ir diodes so could put in glass that blocks these wavelengths. Issue is that it would block in the green. So pilots would only see in blue and red. Also your visual acuity is between green and red none in blue. So would not be ideal for pilots. Also some pointers are also in red. So blocking that as well would make pilots vision even worse. So I’m not sure just how practical it would be.
Yeah that is a good point unless they can use a polarizer to reflect the beam away or have reverse mirror or something to that degree.
A Polarizer would require knowing the initial polarization of the laser pointer which you wouldn’t. I am not sure what you mean by a reverse mirror.
It is a very difficult problem to solve. Most people don’t realise just how dangerous laser pointers and how many you might buy down in the market are very powerful and will blind. What probably saves many pilots eye sight is the divergence of these lasers after 1000 feet. But kids firing these around the playground doesn’t have this distance
Find one of these jackasses and lock him up for a few years, that might help.
The thing is, it’s not just the simple laser, in face Aircraft windscreens are the opposite than anti laser, when that thing is pointed, you cannot see F*ck all, it reflects across the hole screen, so inside and out you are blind, and if that hints your eye, it can possibly do some damage , they didn’t turn around for the crac, the pilots eyes were obviously in discomfort.
Little D.ick head if hes caught with that lazer it should be stuck up his behind.
This offence should carry a 20 year jail term
Dr Evil is my guess, the “Lazer” is a give away
Can sharks survive in the Thames?
Why would anyone want to point a laser at an aircraft taking off ? I didn’t realise you can buy military grade laser pens with a 10 mile + range on Amazon and eBay ? WTF
I wonder what the pilots who flew through flak would think of this?
Pilots that flew through flak didn’t have a choice, they also didn’t have a few hundred passengers. The pilots that flew through flak would have received medical assistance if they landed just like this Virgin pilot did.
If a plane is at 8k ft, and climbing, the cockpit windows wouldn’t be accessible by laser from the ground, due to the angle. Or wouldn’t the laser have to be many miles forward ? ….which makes aiming in the window at such a distance without a scope pox luck ?
Very stupid stunt, could have put lives in danger. I does raise the question though how a ground based laser could accurately target the cockpit at 10,000 ft perhaps something more sinister than a messer.
I predict an increase in the purchase of these super long range laser pens. I honestly thought you would only get a short distance from them
Jesus, imagine if something more serious happened,God help his passengers.
Why would they turn around?! If they’re going to actually be shot at surely turning around isn’t going to make that less likely
Pilots just looking for attention on this one. Grow a pair pilots
Lets hope medical technology can soon grow a pair of RETINAS to transplant into pilots that are permanently blinded by this moronic crime.
Why would they turn around?
A medical issue Hugh. Most likely one of the crew got an eye full of it.
A 20 year jail term!! Have a day off
There should be a severe jail sentence for stuff like this.
have your say