Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

That will remain the case following the enactment of this Finance Bill. That person is not being given the lower rate because he or she is self-employed. The reason for this, as the Minister has explained, is that existing anomalies mean self-employed people would have been better off in the absence of the surcharge. That brings me to section 3 of this Bill. The proposed new subsection (b)(2) states: "Notwithstanding subsection (1) and the Table to this section, where an individual has relevant income that exceeds €100,000, the individual shall, instead of being charged to universal social charge on the amount of the excess at the rate provided for in column (2) of that Table, be charged on the amount of that excess at the rate of 10 per cent". I assume this section refers only to those above 70 years of age. Is that correct? I will assume it is. It would be better to have some to-and-fro because I would like to know if I am wrong in this regard. I presume this applies only to those over the age of 70. I assume it will apply to those who are self-employed and to PAYE workers. In the answer the Minister gave to Deputy Ó Ríordáin earlier, he referred to the reason the previous Government introduced the 3% surcharge. This section would get rid of that reasoning because this measure would apply to PAYE workers and to the self-employed. Am I right in that regard?