Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I endorse what has been said by previous speakers about the arts and artists. I might slightly disagree with Deputy Mattie McGrath. I do not know that we would be good Europeans by shooting everything down. We have adopted a far more restrictive approach than the rest of the European Union. One only has to look at the European Commission site, reopen.europa.eu, to see that very clearly. Which approach is ultimately the better will be determined in time, but after a considerable length of time.

I make a point about the definition of employers. This employment wage-subsidy scheme, as it is to become, is confined to those in employment and excludes the self-employed. Obviously, the great majority of artists and people in the entertainment business are self-employed. The self-employed sector goes far beyond that. There is a long-standing debate in this House - albeit in a different setting - on the appropriate social welfare payments and social welfare net to make available to the self-employed. Of course, this is not a social welfare payment and we are not discussing a social welfare Bill. This is simply a financial measure to stop people becoming unemployed and to stop viable businesses going to the wall until we can get businesses up and running.

In that line, I urge the Minister to consider including self-employed people to ensure they do not end up leaving their business. I am not talking about somebody who is suddenly claiming to be self-employed if they were not previously. It is very clear from Revenue records whether somebody was self-employed in 2019. If they get money along the way and they ultimately end up having more than 70% of last year's income, it is all the better. There is absolutely no loss to the State and the money is returned in the same way it is in respect of an employee. I urge the Minister to consider self-employed people.

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