Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge the circumstances the Senator's constituent is undergoing and I wish that person the very best of luck with their health challenges. As I have said already, if he could outline them in more detail to the Minister I am sure she would be very happy to get her officials to look at the matter.

The Government in recent years has already extended a number of social insurance benefits to the self-employed without any increase in their PRSI rate. It is well known that the Social Insurance Fund will face significant financial challenges in the years ahead. Therefore, any changes have to be considered in an overall policy and budgetary context, including the contribution rates for the self-employed. It is worth pointing out that the Government has already decided to keep the State pension age at 66. This in itself will require increases to PRSI in the future and Government has been very upfront and honest with people about the need to increase PRSI to pay for that. I take the point the Senator has made but we need to be straight with people on this. If we are going to pay for extra benefits from the Social Insurance Fund, that will require increases to PRSI.