Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I can appreciate that, but when we talk about equalisation, at its core is the word "equality". If we believe there should be equalisation, we need to believe there is inequality at the heart of the system at this time. When the Minister is addressing an inequality, he should not pit one person against another. While I take his point about how it looks on a spreadsheet, this is about having equality for the self-employed. On Committee Stage, we talked about the challenges facing those who were self-employed and I am sure the issue will come up again. We have talked about the fact that they cannot rely on some State supports when things do not go their way, they fall ill or their companies do not work out in the way they had intended. The Minister has talked about there being limited resources, an issue about which we can have a debate. We can talk about all of the different tax cuts and which are the most appropriate or beneficial, but I ask the Minister to address the cost of increasing the figure from €950 as proposed by the Government to €1,100 as proposed in the amendment.

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