Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

We always expected that we would have to come back to the university sector and there is now far more reason to do so. There is a new independent report which I believe was carried out by Crowe Howarth, at which we need to look. We need to include the issue in the work programme. I had intended to address some of the issues raised by the whistleblowers about the Thorn report and with which they were not happy. It would be kind to the Higher Education Authority to state it was less than impressive when its representatives were before the committee. The very fact that we are still waiting for some significant responses is very disappointing. I hope to see that issue included in the work programme soon.

On Deputy Peter Burke's point, I do not disagree that some of the things being done are fully legal, but they are only fully legal for a certain portion of the population. It is very useful for us to understand what is going on in what could be described as bogus self-employment. If everybody were to do that, we would not be here because there would be no money to run services. We need to understand this. I see absolutely no reason we would not look at the issue in the same way as we try to look at the issue of corporation tax, that is, by looking at one particular organisation, in this case the national broadcaster, in order to gain an understanding. The issue is not unique to one sector. As has been said, we saw it in the case of doctors.