Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The net point here is to do with cost and economic sustainability. The actuarial study of the Social Insurance Fund showed what people know, which is that a self-employed person paying 4%, who is covered for areas such as maternity benefit and widow's and survivor's pensions and for the retirement pension, gets an extremely good deal compared to the person in employment for whom the contribution is a total of 14.75%.

As to whether we extend this cover, personally, I strongly agree with the recommendations of the advisory group. It makes sense. If a self-employed person becomes ill, he or she has no access, for instance, to an invalidity pension and may have no private insurance. However, as Deputy O'Dea will probably be aware, quite a number of organisations representing the self-employed were critical of the idea at this point in time of any increased contributions to cover the cost, but perhaps they should give more consideration to that position.

On the second point,-----

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