Maire Devine (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Sinn Féin welcomes the Bill and the extension of another social welfare support to the self-employed. Businesses can fail and, if that happens, it is crucial that we support those who take a gamble on self-employment. The loss of a business is difficult and lack of financial support can make a bad situation worse. During the economic crash, we learned that the effect on self-employed people was phenomenal; there was no safety net for them and many of them emigrated or went to the wall. I treated a lot of them. There were a lot of mental health issues at the time because there was no income safety net. The extension of jobseeker's benefit, which will at least assist them financially, is positive.

In 2017, the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection carried out a survey of Class S contributors to find out what they would like extended to them. It is good that we had that public consultation. Of respondents, 80% said that the range of social welfare benefits available was quite poor or very poor, and an overwhelming majority said that they would be willing to pay a higher PRSI rate in return for at least one additional social insurance benefit. The top three benefits sought by respondents were long-term illness, short-term illness and unemployment. Since the survey was published, the invalidity or long-term illness benefit has been extended to the self-employed, which is welcome. This Bill will extend unemployment benefit to jobseekers, but the short-term benefit has not been extended and it must be in our future plans to do so. It is wrong that if people who are self-employed become ill and unable to work, they have no access to any social welfare support, and this needs to be addressed urgently.

Recently, a family member of mine who is the earner in the household became seriously ill. They will recover, but they will be out of work for four months and are relying on the generosity of the credit union and family and friends to keep the household ticking over. There is nothing for them.

Yesterday, I attended the Department's briefing to be more informed on this. The big question being mulled over involved the 250,000 people who left this island during the crash. What would have happened if they had stayed? The public purse would have been bled even drier than it was. It was not sustainable and, in a way, they did us a favour by leaving because we had nothing to give. There was no support in place for them, they had no future and so they left. That ties into the different upcoming referenda, which are not for debate here.That haemorrhaging of our people certainly helped the public purse and prevented us from crashing out altogether. How do we future-proof these benefits so that they will still be available and will not be cut should another big economic crash occur? Such cuts led to the scenario from which we are only now recovering.

As I have said, the roll-out of additional benefits to the self-employed needs to continue. Illness benefit must be prioritised. Class S contributors spoke to us in this survey and we must listen to them. We are not naive to the additional costs associated with extending benefits to this cohort of workers, but the Department's own survey concluded that 88% of respondents would be willing to pay PRSI at a higher rate in return for additional social insurance benefits.

As I have said, Sinn Féin welcomes this Bill. It is good to see benefits being extended to the self-employed but I do wish to pick up on a point that at least one other Senator, Senator Ardagh, has raised. We need to be bold in tackling a very big issue facing the sector, namely, bogus self-employment. Bogus self-employment is where rogue bosses deliberately misclassify workers as self-employed subcontractors in order to dodge social insurance and pension contributions, pay rates, employment law and other responsibilities. They are dodging their responsibility to make contributions to this State.

At 6 a.m. on 28 June, at the site of the new national children's hospital, in whose shadow I live, Unite held a protest against the bogus self-employment it believes is going on at the site. This protest was attended by Patricia King and many other supporters. The noise of the protest competed with that of the workers, which is another issue I will take up. This is a big issue. It deprives the State purse of resources and spending power. We must act to end this practice. There are big financial gains for these employers. These classifications are fraudulent. This is not a victimless crime. The costs are paid by the workers, good employers and the State. Workers forced into bogus self-employment are also denied the rights and protection directly-employed workers are entitled to under employment law and collective agreements.

Last month, my colleague, Deputy Brady, introduced a Bill to tackle this very issue. This Bill stands up for these workers and for the State. It not only seeks to make it an offence to issue a self-employed contract to an employee, but it goes much further in ensuring that the self-employed receive the same basic rights and protections as employees, such as annual leave and pay.

I compliment the Minister on this Bill, which will have a positive impact for those who are self-employed. I ask her to address the issue of short-term illness benefit and the concerns I have expressed in respect of bogus self-employment in her response.