David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I refer to the plight of the self-employed. For many years I have referred to the situation of self-employed persons who pay tax and PRSI but receive no social welfare benefits if they need them, despite the fact that the people they employ in their businesses receive them. I understand the Government is considering this issue and that there may be some changes. Today on the wireless I heard a man talk about the fact that he had taken out a pension policy 15 or 20 years ago. He paid €500 a month into the scheme. When he retired or his business collapsed or whatever happened, he discovered that the pension scheme into which he had paid was absolutely useless because the value of the pension was being subtracted from the value of the State pension. That meant he received absolutely no benefit. He had literally been throwing his money away. It was of no use to him whatsoever, apart from perhaps the satisfaction of realising he was saving the State a small amount of money. I successfully raised this issue in the House many years ago in the case of a blind person who had gained a place as a PhD student in Trinity College Dublin. The local authorities were subtracting the value of the scholarship from his blind pension payment. I thought this was unconscionable and did get movement on the issue. This injustice perpetrated against the self-employed, in a period when we are looking for as many entrepreneurs as possible, is a substantial discouragement. Why should the man in question not get the benefit of the pension scheme into which he paid for many years? I ask the Leader to suggest to the Government that it address this issue in the forthcoming budget.