Self-employed social protection stamp
Senator Butler argued for a new PRSI stamp for the self-employed, citing survey support and a ready report. With interjections from Senator Norris, he criticised departmental delay, urged action in the programme for Government, and asked the Leader to bring in the Minister before the next budget.
I would like to talk about social protection for the self-employed. The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection carried out a survey of 20,000 self-employed people last year. In that survey, 76% of self-employed people said they were in favour of a new stamp. The majority wanted it to be voluntary. I would prefer if it was mandatory but I am happy to get it one way or another.
I have fought for the last six or seven years to get this stamp in place. Through the Joint Committee on Employment Affairs and Social Protection, we have the Mangan report. The report is ready to go. A self-employed person pays 4% in PRSI. The Mangan report says that it would have to increase to 5.5% for the new stamp but it would provide for sick pay and disability pay for self-employed people for the first time. That is very important.
Comment on this
I thank Senator Norris. The Department is dragging its feet on this issue. The new Taoiseach, Deputy Leo Varadkar, was the Minister formerly. He was pushing it. We have a new Minister now and I feel that it has been pushed to the back burner, which is not good enough. I appeal to Fianna Fáil, our partners in government. It is in the programme for Government that we progress this new stamp for the self-employed. We are the only country in industrialised Europe that does not have a stamp for the self-employed. That is an absolute disgrace. I welcome all the changes that have happened for the self-employed in the last 12 months. There have been new dental benefits, new access to eye checks and tax equalisation for the self-employed, but this has been dragging on and on. We are talking about a stamp that should have been put in place 30 or 40 years ago, perhaps even 50 years ago. There are 400,000 self-employed persons in this country who go out to work every day and who have no cover if they get sick in the morning or - God forbid - if anything happens to them.
Comment on this
Absolutely. It is always the case that the self-employed person is the last to be looked after. He is paying his taxes, his PRSI and his VAT, and he gets nothing if anything goes wrong.
Comment on this
We have to put something in place. I ask the Leader whether we can have the Minister in to discuss this again. Can we stop kicking the can down the road? Let us put a new stamp for the self-employed in place in the next budget.