Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the Deputy. A working group was set up in my Department to examine and develop a benefits scheme for the self-employed who become unemployed. The group has now finished its work. I am specifically referring to jobseeker's allowance and jobseeker's benefit, which are probably the schemes that self-employed people tell us most often that they would love to access, from a security perspective. As the Deputy notes, they go to work every day, and they have had the gumption and initiative to set themselves up in work and to provide employment for other people. The least the State can do is provide them with the security blanket of knowing that if they are sick they have a minimum basic income for that period.

The group that we established has now finished its work. We are currently completing a report, which I hope will be available shortly, and then I will examine and consider the report's context. Again however, it must be in line with the growing economy. It depends on how much funding is available and on the review of the Social Insurance Fund. Ultimately the aim of this partnership Government is to make sure that we extend all of the employment benefits that are available to employees to self-employed people. We will not stop continuing to extend them.

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