John O'Mahony (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I want to place on the record my support for this motion from Senator Butler. As Senator O'Reilly said earlier, he has been pioneering this for many years. He speaks from his own personal experience, so he comes from that angle as well.

I remember sitting in halls in the west with over 200 people who are self-employed. As a result of the economic crash, they were left destitute and there was no safety net for them. At that stage, because of the constraints of the crash, it was difficult for the last Government to solve the problems along with everything else but we are now in a different space. I commend this motion and I commend the Minister for the efforts he is making in regard to this and in the area of pensions as well. We are in a position where issues need to be tackled and to be planned for.

The main message here, as Senator Ó Céidigh touched on, is that self-employed people do not, in the main, run big companies. They are builders, farmers, fishermen, doctors, dentists, electricians, plumbers, mechanics and shopkeepers. They need to be looked after. They are the lifeblood of our economy as much as the big multinational companies. The current stamp paid by this category is, as we all know, 4% of reckonable income and provides cover for contributory widows' and widowers' pensions, the State pension and maternity benefit, but it does not cover unemployment and sick benefit. The big issue at that meeting was that none of them could get jobseeker's benefit either. I know that was adjusted to a certain extent and some would get it because of lowering of thresholds, means testing and all of that, but the advisory group on tax and social welfare examined the options for extensions of cover to the self-employed and found it was warranted in the case of long-term sickness or injuries. It recommended, as has been said here before, an increase of at least 1.5%. I know ISME came out strongly against it at the time and said it should be optional. I would not agree with this. In Ireland most things that are optional are not as effective and a way needs to be found to implement it for everybody on an equal footing. We all accept that providing a supportive environment for enterprise and employment is fundamental to a full economic recovery in this country. We need risk-takers, but those risk-takers need a safety net.

As we pointed out already, it is those who create one or two jobs and the small self-employed who employ a few people who are more likely to be more influential in the regional and rural areas. It is important that the role of entrepreneurs, the self-employed and small family businesses is central to our economy. There is a commitment in the new programme for Government to introduce an approved PRSI scheme for the self-employed. This motion is very timely. There will be a public consultation process soon, I understand. We all accept that change is needed. The status quocannot be left as it is. It is not acceptable. We need an equal playing field for our self-employed. These proposals, if adopted, would be a very good start for that. As has been pointed out, most countries have a form of this already and it is time we introduced it as well.