To be eligible for an income protection insurance policy in Ireland you need to be employed for over 16 hours per week, or self employed. Typically you can choose to start an income protection insurance plan up to the age of 54 and stop it at age55, 60 and 65. Each job is given a rating between 1 to 5, an office based worker is the lowest risk and ranks 1, whereas trades people are class 5 jobs as they are at greater risk.