Self-employed willing to pay for more State benefits

Three in four self-employed people would be willing to pay more into the State’s social insurance fund in order to get access to more benefits and services such as health care or sick cover.

A survey for Social Protection Minister Leo Varadkar has found the self-employed want better benefits and are agreeable to paying more than 4% in PRSI, their current rate.

The results could now feed into Mr Varadkar’s planning for next year’s budget and potentially see a series of extra benefits offered to the self-employed —if they paid more PRSI.