John Ellis (Fianna Fail)

I did not interrupt Senator Norris. It has never been my practice to interrupt others if I can avoid it. I am sick and tired of some of the stuff being put out by political parties which want to be in government but whose policies are diverse as Sunday and Monday. There are others who have left government but now feel, because they are outside, they can play an independent role claiming this, that and the other could have been done. Why did they not stay in government and do so if they felt that was appropriate course of action?

The House may debate the Finance Bill on Friday. There are several anomalies in the legislation, especially with regard to the self-employed. Different rates for the universal social charge are proposed for the self-employed and PAYE workers. Will one set of people be classed as lepers, namely, the self-employed, who have been classed as this by a number of groups for years, while a different category will be applied to the public service and other PAYE workers? It is time the self-employed got a fair crack of the whip. It must be remembered we will be depending on many of them to dig this country out of the economic situation in which it finds itself.