Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I too want to speak to this section and echo what Deputy Boyd Barrett said. It is cruel that the self-employed are once again discriminated against regarding the PUP. The failure of the Government to take the 2019 assessment into account was an oversight that caused untold hardship. These people, as Deputy Boyd Barrett and others have said, are self-made. Many of them, perhaps, were in employment ten 10 years ago or whenever and decided to take up their hobby and turn it into a business. Then, when they became successful, they became self-employed, but they take risks. Many of them have loans and use their own family home as the guarantee for the loan.

Some of this equipment is frightfully expensive, and not only that for the musicians, but for sound and lighting engineers and event organisers. There are many of them and, as I have said several times, it is part of our culture. Whatever music type it is, it is part of our heritage. To be told now to go off and get another job is totally disgraceful. Are we going to wipe away, disband and cast away the wonderful groups that we have? Deputy Boyd Barrett mentioned Mary Coughlan. There are thousands of Mary Coughlans and others like her, who had full bookings and full engagements until the Government decision in March, which we all supported in good faith. They are now being discriminated against totally and utterly. Their diaries were full and they were not looking for anything from the Government. They were paying their VAT and other taxes, and insurance on the equipment. They were paying their motor insurance and for their vehicles.

In a survey the MEAI has conducted on its 4,000 members, 11.6% had utility bills in arrears and 9.7% had to sell essential equipment to cover household expenses. How will they get started again if they had to sell this equipment? Some of them have a huge affection for their instruments. They mind them the same as they would mind their children. They love their instruments and by using them with exemplary skills, they give solace and entertainment to all of us and many other people. Some 7% had lost, or were in danger of losing, their vehicle. That vehicle might be a crew car or van that is used to bring their kids to school or to go on outings. It is a work van but also the family mode of transport. A further 3.4% are in danger of losing their home. It is shocking and we talk about the homeless here and the so-called vulture funds. Are they going to be fired to the vultures? Some 17.4% are dealing with mental health worries as a result of the financial stress, which is shocking. Another 2.4% have considered self-harm. These people are outgoing and giving of themselves and their talents for the entertainment of others. They help people's mental health and now they are in that situation themselves. The Minister seems to be hard-faced and stony-faced in their plight. We must stand up and support them. It is shocking that he can just roll over here.

I am going to question the Covid-19 pandemic once again. Are we trying to drive small businesspeople out of business? That is what it seems like to me. They are people who have the motivation to be self-employed and pay their taxes and to get a group or a band together, which gives more employment to the sound and lighting engineers, and create an industry themselves. I think we are trying to drive them out of business.

They are like the publicans, who we are definitely trying to drive out of business, the small shop owners, the taxi drivers and the man in the van, whether he be a service man, a food delivery service or pizza delivery person or whatever. They are self-employed, which is what we want, because we cannot all get jobs off the State or other people. We want creators of jobs and of businesses but these businesses are being downtrodden.

Of course, the over-66s are cast totally to the wasteland. I do not know what is wrong with the Government parties that he cannot see this. They do not get it or understand it. Do none of them ever come to this or any other venue for a gig? Do any Ministers ever go to the dance hall to have a dance, or to the Comhaltas seisiúin, or, indeed, the Fleadh Cheoil, or the ordinary concerts or the ordinary busking in the pub or in the street? They will be wiped out. Does the Minister want a cold, stony-faced culture? We will be good Europeans all right but our own Irish heritage, our dúchas, our faith will be wiped out. The Government seems to be trying to wipe out any spirit of Irishness or any spirit of a people, race or history.

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