Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I find the Minister's approach to the issue rather disappointing because the previous Government, of which I was a member, had an achievable ambition, as he knows, to achieve equalisation in a three-year period. It is now November and I am sure the Minister's officials are having a close look at the self-employed tax returns.

To go back to a point I made earlier, it is important to understand that the current number of self-employed and the extraordinary growth in self-employment figures in the economy are both somewhat false in a certain sense because, particularly at lower income levels and in large parts of the construction sector, people on relatively low incomes are being forced into self-employment. Their choice and that of those who administer the tax system would be for them to be employees. However, as evidenced by the Paradise Papers, there will always be those who play the system and that is what is being done in this case.

The Minister's Cabinet colleagues have been holding back in addressing what is an abuse of the tax system. The logic of it is that if people are being abused and being forced into self-employment, then some of the anomalies, such as the self-employed tax credit, should be of equal status with the tax credit for people on PAYE. Looking at the figures, there would probably be a surge of up to €400 million to €500 million because of the extraordinary growth in self-employment.

There is a view of the self-employed as being somehow or other well-off. The trades where people are effectively forced into self-employment can range from the building industry to labour-intensive areas such as personal services of different kinds. Their take-home pay is relatively small, however. Giving them the same tax breaks as PAYE workers makes a lot of sense in fairness and in economic terms.

I understand the die is cast for this year. However, it is a wrong decision but, clearly, the Government decided it had a particular framework for spending. I noted a confidence survey published last weekend stated people did not feel anything from the budget. I am sure the Minister's officials brought it to his attention. The reason for this is simple. If the Minister had just indexed the bands and the allowances at whatever level - certainly for inflation - people would have done better than the notional €5 a week, as previous speakers have suggested. I am disappointed he has failed to give self-employed people parity, when so many of them are in forced self-employment. I do not know what economic sense it makes. The Minister can talk about balancing the books but when he is close to eliminating the deficit, this kind of balance does not really say much.

Will the Minister share with us how the returns from the self-employed are actually going? I am sure the Department is looking at it constantly. Are they up to expectations or, as I expect, exceeding expectations? Unless, somehow or other, there has been a flight of self-employed people out of the country, it is hard not to see there being a surge, particularly as the big return to employment and self-employment started four years ago.