Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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There is a very easy answer to that. There is an enormous surge in the number of self-employed, in particular at lower levels of pay. That is evident from statistics. Many people are in their third or fourth year of self employment. As the Minister knows, the pattern for the self employed is that by the third year and once the start-up costs and so on of whatever it is they are doing have been accommodated, the income of those people is then hopefully likely to finally rise to a significant point close to the average industrial wage. Unless such increases occur, how will such people pay for rent or, better still, put a deposit down on a house, get a mortgage and be able to become financially independent?