Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important subject for many people right across the country, including in my constituency of Galway East. We have many self-employed people who are the backbone of our economy. The problem is that people who are self-employed, who might have one, two or three people working for them in construction, hospitality or in whatever sector, and who are working in and managing all this, do not get illness benefit if they fall ill. They should be allowed to pay the higher level of PRSI for themselves, so they can get illness benefit. If their employees fall sick, they will get illness benefit. Yet the employer does not get anything. I have seen cases where families have been in disarray because somebody gets ill, is out of work for five or six weeks and no income is coming in. We should look at this issue in the budget.

The Regional Group tabled a Private Members' motion some weeks ago on SMEs and how best to deal with this sector. I will refer to one point, namely, the national minimum wage. I agree this rate should be increased. What happens for small businesses, though, is that the threshold beyond which they must pay the higher rate of PRSI does not go up in line with the minimum wage rate. I refer to the move from 8.8% to 13%. I think the threshold at the moment is something like €441. This should be brought up to €449 before the additional PRSI starts to be paid. This, in itself, would be a saving for small businesspeople because when the national minimum wage goes up, there is also an increased cost in terms of employees in respect of paying the additional PRSI due in this regard. It is small, but, again, it is another cost there we do not speak about.

The other major aspect concerns people working remotely. The hospitality sector was mentioned. People are not in our towns and villages as often as they were before remote working became part of our way of living. It is important, therefore, that we recognise this point.

Turning to the level of rates paid, small businesses and the way all this is sorted out, as has been said by Deputy Boyd Barrett, the same rate per square foot applies in all cases.

We need to have a differential rate but we also need to say that we would exempt businesses from rates up to a certain modest turnover. While we are giving supports for rates, the rates still have to be paid and then it can be claimed back at 50%. Basically, what are rates but a tax on doing business on top of all the other taxes. For those people in fledgling self-employment and those people trying to make a living on it there are a lot of things we could be getting ourselves involved in.

See this speech in context