Ray Butler (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister for coming in today with the Estimates. We talk about social inclusion and the commitment to that and the Minister knows about my concern, which is the self-employed social inclusion. We commissioned the Mangan report, in which the Minister was involved and which came up with a new stamp at 5.5% to give sick pay and disability, which would be assessed in the long term. We have 340,000 self-employed, a quarter of the workforce, and, please God, the number will get much bigger. The elephant in the room is whether we make it mandatory or voluntary and a lot of groups are suggesting it be voluntary because of the bigger earners. I propose we cap it at a certain level but it would have to be mandatory to work as nothing will work in social protection-----