Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

I appreciate the Deputy's comments and views. Our social insurance must change to accommodate the fact that many more people will, at some point in their working lives, be self-employed, be self-employed contractors or set up a small family company, for example, in the construction industry. In some cases, employers have structured employment so people who would formerly have been deemed employees, are contractors and self-employed. We cannot call our system a universal social insurance system unless we take account of these patterns of employment. Many of the self-employed people mentioned by Deputy Penrose are people who worked in construction, whether plumbers, carpenters or something else. Traditionally, these people would have been employed as employees, but the manner in which the construction industry has developed over time has meant that many of these people became self-employed subbies. Often they were left waiting for payment and this, in turn, contributed to their distress.

I am conscious that currently, in law, even if people have the wherewithal and wish to make a contribution, they are unable to do so and many self-employed people have made that point to me personally. Self-employment covers a wide range of jobs and professions. Barristers are self-employed and we often do not think of some of the wide range of people in various jobs and professions as self-employed. I know from speaking to many of these people, not only those in the construction sector, that many of them are interested in being allowed to make a contribution so they will have some cushion of safety in the event their business or employment goes south.

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