Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As someone who has operated the new RCT system as an accountant, I would point out that there is a significant amount of genuine self-employment. Revenue has never been in possession of as much data as it has now. If one takes into consideration the changes that have happened since 2016 in terms of a principal actually registering a contract through the eRCT system, one will see that the site location, the value of the contract and various details of the employee in question have to go in. Revenue has all that data whereby it can furnish aspect queries or Revenue audits directly to that firm or principal contractor. That is going on. I have seen detailed audits. A company or a principal must account for everyone on their books in terms of whether they are self-employed or in the PAYE system. Obviously, it is a significant blow to them if they are found to have self-employed individuals who should be employees. The code of practice is very clear on that.

I would point out that there is a lot of rigour in terms of someone getting a 0% payment from the eRCT system because, obviously, Revenue determines what deduction should be given to a contractor. One has to jump huge hurdles to get a 0% rate involving having a clean history with Revenue and a built-up period of tax compliance and this is only correct. While there are issues, many of them are due to fraud and are being clamped down on by Revenue. Revenue has the data to go after a lot of these cases. I have seen audits where Revenue went after cases and made genuine employers show clearly that people were genuinely self-employed compared to their PAYE employees, which is right and proper. It is important to know that there is serious compliance in this area.