Mr. R?n?n Hession:

What we have tended to do with self-employment is look back at the previous year for which people have records. If people have work on hand, contracts and other useful information we can use this. The trickiest of all is someone in employment who is also self-employed. For example, a teacher may also give guitar lessons. Somebody might work in a warehouse and deliver food in the evenings. Where there is a mix of both it is tricky.

There are many supports. Disability allowance can be combined with some self-employment. We have the back to work enterprise allowance and the reasonable accommodation fund is available for self-employment. We do have supports. The Leas-Chathaoirleach mentioned AsIAm. This is one of the questions that AsIAm has raised with us. I should have mentioned that when we speak to people about employment opportunities self-employment is another option for people who are interested in it. We are engaging with groups and we will meet AsIAm in a couple of weeks time.