As you may well recall, recently the Hon. Minister of Finance got involved in a little bit of a controversy because he informed a gathering that his cleaner was injured at work and since she did not pay National Insurance contributions she could not benefit from social benefits.

Believe it or not, one year ago, during a similar meeting the Hon. Minister had referred to a cleaner ( not his cleaner ) who was injured at work and… on that day nobody bothered about what the minister said.

In reality the problem does not exist solely with cleaners but with all those individuals – mainly women – who carry out an economic activity on a ‘part-time self-employed basis’. The reason being that a National Insurance contribution that caters for such individuals does not exist.

For the last three years I had presented pre-budget contributions (one of which had been printed by your popular daily on 28 September, 2008) and each time, I proposed the introduction of a National Insurance contribution that catered for such individuals.

Actually this anomaly had been solved by the present administration for people who were ‘employed’ on a part-time basis. In fact the rate for such people was reduced to 10% of their income.

PS – well done for the new layout. It is fresh and interesting.

Noel Muscat

Swieqi