James Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister. I also welcome the motion and commend Senator Ray Butler for tabling it and Senator Joe O'Reilly for seconding it.

Everybody who has spoken so far has acknowledged that self-employed persons are often entrepreneurs. They are risk takers and innovators. As Senator Ray Butler stated, they are also the backbone of the economy and communities. They create wealth and employment. This must be taken into consideration when we look at what is being proposed. It is not simply what they would contribute by way of what we are seeking in the making of stamp contributions by self-employed persons, which would rise to be made at a rate of 5.5% over a period and give them some rights which I will discuss, but we must also think about all of the people they employ and all of the wealth and revenue for the taxpayer this would generate. We should not look at the issue in total isolation. A Senator spoke about the figure 14.5% divided between the employer and employee.

A total of 380,000 self-employed persons make S stamp contributions. What do they get in return? We know that their entitlements include longer-term benefits such as the State pension, widow's, widower's or surviving civil partner contributory pension, as well as a guardian payment, maternity benefit and adoptive benefit. Self-employed contributors will also be able to access the new paternity benefit to be introduced later this year, which measure the Minister of State, Deputy David Stanton, brought through the House earlier today. Benefits to which they are not entitled include, as has been mentioned, jobseeker's benefit, illness benefit, partial incapacity benefit, invalidity pension, health and safety benefit, carer's benefit, treatment benefit and occupational injuries benefits, including disablement benefit.

There is no doubt thaqt this is a huge issue for those who are self-employed. Sadly, I have met many people who lost their businesses during the crash. I am not here to score political points and we know that the economy is now recovering. The point is they really felt let down by the State. They felt that, having employed apeople, paid PRSI for their workers and having created wealth enabling tax to be paid, they were left high and dry. It is a real sore point for them. We as a Government would like to see entrepreneurs encouraged, as would most Members of this House. They are the risk-takers. We need to send them a strong message that we will support them. I am pleased that under the programme for Government we will seek to introduce a PRSI scheme for the self-employed, address the minimum wage situation and extend dental treatment benefit under the Social Insurance Fund. I also welcome the fact that we are working towards increasing the earned income tax credit from €5.50 to €16.50 for the self-employed to match that of PAYE workers. As my party's spokesperson for jobs, enterprise and innovation, I know that this lack of support must be addressed if we are to continue our recovery as an economy. It will have to be mandatory, as other speakers have said, otherwise, as the Minister well knows, there will be self-selection and those who believe they are not at any risk will opt out and those who believe there may be a risk will opt in and that will certainly skew the fund.

In Fingal, with which the Minister is very familiar, we have the youngest population in Ireland and possibly in the EU and, according to the last census, we had the fastest growth rate in the country of 8%. I remind Members that the best way out of poverty is a job. The small and medium enterprise sector is creating many more new jobs and it also creates wealth for the country. For instance, we have the Fumbally Exchange in Balbriggan where young entrepreneurs are encouraged to come and set up enterprises. They are supported in small units, with low overheads, to set up and start out on their own and when they get going they can move on. Bringing in this stamp would greatly help in taking the decision to make that jump.

According to IBEC, the two biggest areas that are probably most vulnerable as a result of Brexit are agribusiness and tourism and both of those fall very much into the small and medium enterprise sector. The people engaged in them are very much innovating, expanding and exploring new ways to add value to a product and creating new products. We need to support them and encourage that and take the pressure off those who are already in that sector, as they face the challenge of exchange rates changing. The bigger companies can hedge against this sort of thing but the small and medium enterprises find it very difficult to do that.

We have been very successful in developing our tourism industry, with which the Minister will be very familiar from his previous ministry and the very successful initiative, The Gathering, and also the very successful initiative taken by the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, in reducing VAT in the sector to 9%. People come here because our country has natural beauty but the reason they keep coming back is their memories of the people and their kindness, genuineness and sense of fun. We want to continue to encourage innovation with respect to restaurants, cafés, bars, bed and breakfast accommodation, small hotels, artisan food production and many more enterprises. We want to encourage people to go out on their own and to ensure that they do not feel constrained by the bigger company and the setting. As Senator O'Donnell pointed out, many people working in multinationals have ideas of their own and set up on their own. I remember that when the Digital company in Galway pulled out, many of its employees set up their own business and were hugely successful. If this measure has been put in place then, it would have been a huge boom to them.

The Minister needs to address this issue. He has the support of Government on it. Senator Butler's motion is commendable. It will send a very strong message of support to the self-employed and to those who are considering becoming self-employed who want to innovate and explore new ways of delivering value. I commend the motion to the House.