Ray Butler (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for coming before the committee today. I welcome the news that the Christmas bonus will be paid this year. It is a huge boost for local businesses and very good news for people living in rural Ireland.

Naturally, I will start the ball rolling by raising the issue of the discrimination of self-employed people in terms of social protection over the years. Four hundred thousand people who are self-employed get up every morning and go out to work. That is one quarter of the workforce. I refer to the painter, the plasterer, the electrician and the shopkeeper. They are ordinary, decent people.

I welcome the good work the Government has done, especially this Minister and her predecessor, on tax equalisation, eye and dental cover and disability payments. However, we need to go further. Those benefits should have been put in place 30 or 40 years ago. In terms of putting a new stamp in place, I would like to see that done on a mandatory basis, but I know it will come about on a voluntary basis and that we will have to move with that. The Mangan report that was done three or four years ago through social protection stated that putting a new stamp in place at 5.5% would provide sick pay for self-employed people and other benefits that we have put in place. I want to see this new stamp put in place. During the economic crash, I saw the devastation done when self-employed people lost their businesses and had to pay everyone. When they thought they were entitled to something, they got nothing, however. During the recession, many self-employed people went into dark places, including into the back of sheds and fields, and never came back, which is very sad.

We are the only country in industrialised Europe that does not have social protection benefits for the self-employed. I am pleading with the Minister to put this new stamp in place, if she can, in this budget. I am aware the research has been done by her Department and that she has been heavily involved in that. Everything is in place now and, in fairness to Fianna Fáil, it is in the programme for Government so let us put this new stamp in place. We will never get a better chance to do it. People are returning to work. We can build on the fund as we move forward so that if an economic crash happens, self-employed people will be covered.

Meath County Council is reviewing the rents of all its tenants in social housing. Why is the working family payment, formerly known as family income supplement, taken as part of gross income, which results in rents being increased, when that money is given through the Department to support families, not for rent? No other body includes the working family payment in a person's gross income.

It is scandalous that local authorities are allowed to do so. The Department is giving the money to lower income families in good faith, yet it is being used to pay rent to local authorities. I know of people whose rent has increased significantly because the working family payment is being counted as part of their gross income. It is not right.

I have referred previously to the abolition of the bereavement grant. If possible, it should be restored in some shape or form. For a family, it was a recognition by the State of the loss of a loved one. Even if we cannot restore it in its entirety, surely we can restore it at just €400. The system is being abused and unfair on ordinary, decent, working people.

There should be more information on advertisements about the stamp one pays and what it entitles people to receive from the Department. There are many people who do not have a clue what their entitlements are and we should be giving them that information.