Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am going on the advice of the advisory group, which researched the matter very deeply, and also on the actuarial reviews which show that, for the 4% contribution that self-employed people currently make, they get widow's and widower's pensions, contributory retirement benefits, maternity benefit and guardian's benefit. Those are significant benefits for 4%. Many self-employed people are relatively young - for example, in the area of contracting in IT. For this reason, perhaps we should do a further campaign. I would certainly be prepared to look at that.

As regards opting in, all the studies say there has to be a contribution on a social solidarity basis, given the risk the social insurance fund and taxpayers have to cover. If it is only on an opt-in basis, instead of getting the general population, we will tend, for obvious reasons, to get the more risky element of the self-employed population, which would mean it would be very difficult to fund. Bearing in mind where we have come from in terms of our financial difficulties, and even before we had difficulties, the principle of social insurance and social solidarity has always been that people pay in and the general population are entitled to claim.

In case any self-employed people are listening, I must point out that after I became Minister for Social Protection we changed the basis of assessment significantly. Previously, people had to go to great lengths to get extensive information about their tax affairs and the performance of their businesses in earlier years, precisely when they might have been doing well. Now, for the self-employed, farmers or fisherman, if there is a catastrophic loss of income, they can go to the local Intreo office and present the information on what has happened to cause the catastrophic loss of income, and we will take it on a current basis and examine the information. This has helped many people, particularly those formerly employed in construction.

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