Ray Butler (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his positive response. I thank the outgoing Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Burton, for all the help she has given the self-employed through her Department. Hopefully, the new Minister will finally put the new stamp in place. We are the only country in industrialised Europe that does not offer social protection for the self-employed. We have come a long way since I entered the House three years ago and raised this issue at a meeting of the Joint Committee on Education and Social Protection. I was told the rate would be at least 30% but it is now down to 4.25%. This will give recognition to self-employed people.

Recently, a lady rang a local radio station to describe how her husband who was self-employed got sick. She earns €440 a week. They have two children and a mortgage repayment of €1,600 per month. Her husband was assessed for social welfare benefits and a payment of €1.80 per week was approved. That has to stop and we must put a system in place. Everybody gets sick and sometimes people suffer a disability.

In England, welfare payments for the self-employed are based on their profits. If people generate between zero and £7,000 in profits annually, they fill out an exclusion form. They pay £3.30 a week in national insurance if they generate between £7,000 and £12,000 in profits annually and they pay 9% in the higher bands. The Sunday Business Postran an article under the headline, "No Country for Sick and Self-Employed". However, we are relying on the self-employed to get this country up and running. We cannot leave the system the way it is. We have to put a new system in place. I want the unions to come down off their high horses to put this new stamp in place - at the end of the day, are they acting for the self-employed or who are they acting for? We must put a stamp in place for the self-employed.

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