Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

A large number of self-employed people are finding things very difficult. It is true that many self-employed people will not necessarily earn the same level of income this year as they did last year. This is particularly true in the case of those may have secured employment in a large contractor in the construction industry. For this reason, a degree of flexibility is provided. The Deputy, like me, will be aware of cases where this flexibility has been applied and people have been given jobseeker's allowance based on poor projected earnings for this year and having regard to the economic downturn. While I am not sure further guidelines are required, I am conscious that a flexible approach must be taken to self-employed people.

Even in the context of income for self-employed people from the previous year, many allowances are made for outgoings such as property, savings and investment and so forth. All these items are taken into consideration.

I will keep the matter under review because I am aware that people in the self-employed category have suddenly found themselves in difficulty. As I stated, I have observed in practice how the flexibility available to social welfare offices allows people to receive jobseeker's allowance based on a genuine, realistic projection of income rather than the previous year's income.

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