Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Fine Gael)
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First, I welcome the Self-Employed Alliance Dundalk. I myself was self-employed for a number of years. I took a chance and I gave employment. I do not understand the reason self-employed people cannot pay the same PRSI contributions as their employees. Being self-employed, one pays all one taxes, one pays one's PRSI, one's universal social charges and one's PAYE obligations. One takes a chance every day that one will get paid for the service one supplies. One pays all one's staff holiday pay and overtime and one is taking people off social welfare. However, if things change and if business gets bad, one does not get paid. Moreover, when one's business can no longer survive, one spends all one's savings. If one seeks help from the social services, one is told that as one was self-employed, one is entitled to nothing. Even if such people have families to look after, where do they go? After working all their lives and paying all their taxes, they do not even get jobseeker's benefits, as to so do one must pay PRSI at the class A rate. Similarly, one does not receive redundancy payments. Self-employed people are being punished and this must stop.