Barry Ward (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Today, the Government announced the auto-enrolment scheme for pensions, which I welcome. Nobody has ever accused pensions of being sexy, but there is the reality in the demographics in Ireland and in the changes in the population that mean that we have to prepare for a pensions crisis that is coming down the road. It is entirely appropriate therefore that the Government would put this scheme in place. I welcome the fact that employees will benefit both from contributions from their employers and from the State. It is perhaps the most effective way that we can prepare people for retirement and we can prepare the State coffers to deal with the fact there will be a huge number of people who will be pensioners and who will essentially be paid for by people who are working.

The question I have, and this is why I think we should ask the Minister to come into the House for a debate on this, is on how this will function for self-employed persons. People who are self-employed do not have the benefit of an employer paying into their pension.There is no auto-enrolment for them and yet we have said so many times self-employed people are the backbone of the economy. They are the backbone of employment within this economy. Small businesses and people who take the initiative to set up businesses and take on the burden, risk and responsibility of being an employer will apparently not benefit from this auto-enrolment scheme. May we therefore have a debate whereby we talk about how this scheme is also going to work for small business owners, self-employed persons and sole traders? How is it going to work for them? What is the State going to contribute to their pensions so they are not left behind when the time comes?