Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I have made most of my points. There is enough opinion even in this committee, never mind the various people who have raised it beyond this committee such as ICTU, unions and construction workers, to merit the review we are asking for, regardless of people's opinions. The Minister said that construction is reporting growth in all areas and has grown consistently for the past three years. However, as I pointed out to him, job growth is stagnating. The PMI report I mentioned previously states that while the rate at which companies outsource work to subcontractors grew the fastest in three months, they are displacing direct employment. As construction picks up again, the move back towards subcontracting that was a major feature of the last construction boom is returning and with it, almost inevitably, an increase in bogus self-employment - replacing directly employed people with stuff that is outsourced, which opens up to all of the bogus self-employment. It is in that outsourcing that we see all the bogus self-employment. I accept that there are legitimately self-employed people in construction. I know that is the case but when the proportion of people who are categorised as self-employed is as high as it is and is increasing significantly while job growth is stagnating, that suggests that the abuse of the category of self-employment is increasing.