As the Taoiseach knows, there has been much debate and there were many provisions in the programme for Government about the self-employed needing far more support and protection under the social welfare system. Last week on Joe Duffy's radio show, Ms Martina Kelly spoke harrowingly about her experience as a self-employed person. She outlined how a sudden and debilitating condition negatively impacted on her personal well-being but also left her penniless due to the absence of a social security safety net. It is striking that the Government has made no effort to implement the Mangan report prepared by an advisory group on tax and social welfare about extending social insurance coverage to the self-employed. It was published in May 2013.

Essentially, it stated that in international terms, Ireland is unusual in not providing state supports for the self-employed in the event of injury or illness. In most EU member states, provision is afforded to the self-employed to cover occupational injuries or sickness.

The group was of the view that social insurance for the self-employed should be extended to provide cover in terms of contingencies related to long-term illness. This is the very point that Ms Martina Kelly made on Joe Duffy's "Liveline" programme last week. If the Taoiseach gets a chance, he should listen to the podcast. I believe Ms Kelly may have rung the Taoiseach, as did her husband. It is an extraordinarily sad and difficult story for all concerned.

The recommendation is that the extension of social insurance to self-employed to provide cover for long-term ill-health or incapacity should be on a compulsory basis. Why did the Government not proceed to legislate for that recommendation of the report? The Taoiseach made a very important commitment to do something for the self-employed but very little has happened at a time when we are encouraging people to become self-employed and self-starters.

On a related issue, the programme for Government makes a commitment that: "Universal primary care (UPC) will remove fees for GP care and will be introduced within this government’s term of office." This commitment has now been abandoned by the Minister for Health, Deputy Varadkar, similar to what happened with universal health insurance. Yesterday, the Minister, Deputy Varadkar, said that free GP care would not be deliverable in the next five years. In the 2011 programme for Government, Fine Gael and the Labour Party promised to deliver it by 2016. Now, before a general election, we have the new phenomenon of Ministers predicting that even in the next five years, it will not be implementable either.

Does the Taoiseach accept that chapter of the programme for Government is complete fiction? Clearly, it will not be implementable in this Dáil but now what was proposed in 2011 will not even be implementable in the next five years to 2021. Does the Taoiseach accept that?

On the Deputy's first point on the self-employed, obviously, the Government is well aware of the anomaly that has existed here for some time, with hundreds of thousands of self-employed people without any safety net. I understand completely the difficulties being experienced by self-employed people if something like this happens. That is why the Government started to address this in the recent budget, hopefully to eliminate the anomaly in terms of tax that has been there between self-employed and PAYE people.

Obviously, the Mangan report was produced for the Minister for Social Protection. Unfortunately, we have not been able to implement it in the lifetime of this Dáil. The issue the Deputy raises is a very real one and that is why the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, has started the process with the tax credit for self-employed people. Clearly, we cannot do all of these things without the resources to provide it.

With regard to free GP care, the Minister for Health, Deputy Varadkar, has been very realistic here, both in terms of the numbers of doctors who are in training and the capacity to deliver the system. The GP care will be for all under 18s. He has pointed out the potential of overwhelming the service if we proceed on this particular model. Were we to have nurses doing some of the work currently done by GPs, it would be a different matter.

Fine Gael and the Labour Party promised to do it five years ago. Nobody else did so.

Yes but I think he is being perfectly realistic here rather than having to say we can deliver all these things-----

However, the Government said it would deliver it five years ago.

Sorry, Deputy, just let him finish.

I understand but-----

So the Government was not realistic then.

I think we are better actually saying it as it is and getting to the next stage to have-----

I agree 100% but the Taoiseach should have said it the way it was five years ago.

Was Deputy Martin not Minister for Health?

-----free GP care for all those under six and over 70 and all children up to the age of 18.

He is talking to himself and saying that he should be more realistic in the future.

Sorry, settle down.

How can we believe anything they say?

If Deputy Martin intends to go around the country in the coming weeks-----

No, I certainly will not be doing-----

-----promising, like the Deputy over there, that everything is free and nothing has to be paid for-----

That is what the Taoiseach said five years ago.

Yes but realism is a fact of life also.

Is it - in the Taoiseach's world?

If he looks at the number of doctors being trained and the numbers involved here, we have delivered it for those aged over 70 and under six. The next stage is to deliver it for everybody under 18 years of age. I think that is an issue the Minister has addressed realistically.