Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I was a strong supporter of the previous Government's move to extend the PAYE income tax credit to the self-employed. I do not particularly know why there was a move from the implied but perhaps unstated policy of providing for equal relief in each of the three years. I suspect it might have had a lot to do with some of the arithmetic for the budget and the need to make savings, or shavings, in relatively small amounts as the bill increased, not least for Fianna Fáil's part of the budget, but also for that part of the budget pertaining to other members of the Government. I want it to be clear that one of the reasons I am so strongly in favour of the extension of the income tax credit to self-employed persons is that there are a lot of people in the system who we should acknowledge are self-employed but not by choice. They are self-employed as a result of the employment practices of their employers. We have talked about things to discuss on another day. There are young people in their 20s who do not mind being contractors because it does not seem as if the day will come when they will need a pension. By the time they are in their 30s, however, and have family responsibilities, it might be very difficult to be self-employed, particularly on a low wage and because of the lack of protections.

There is bogus self-employment to a great extent. I asked the Minister about this before and was told that a further review was being carried out by the Revenue Commissioners in conjunction with the Department of Social Protection of bogus self-employment in the Irish system. We are all familiar with people on bikes in Dublin city with "Deliveroo" printed on a box on their backs. While we do not really have data in Ireland, it is apparent from information from the United Kingdom that the people making these deliveries may be earning well below the minimum wage. While they may be very happy to have part-time work because they are students, for that reason we need to be very aware of the changes in work patterns which are taking people out of traditional employment. Their terms and conditions are very much those of employees, but they are ending up as self-employed persons on low wages, perhaps below the minimum wage. Consequently, their social welfare entitlements are important. They include an entitlement to pensions, maternity and paternity leave and other social protections. There will be an extension of these entitlements next year, but the people concerned do not have an entitlement to unemployment benefit or assistance in the event that they lose their self-employment because, of course, they are not employed. This is an issue with which we have to grapple.

I suspect this provision has more to do with the budgetary arithmetic than some big policy decision in the Department and that the money simply was not available. However, I hope the Minister will commit to completing the reform process next year and prioritising it. He said before that the report on bogus self-employment and the work being done by the Revenue Commissioners and the Department of Social Protection and others would be published quite soon. Does he have further information on the date it will be available?

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