Ms Maeve McElwee:

I thank the Chairman. I was addressing the point made by Deputy Bríd Smith about the increase in the number of people who are self-employed. My point is that such an increase is not necessarily indicative of an increase in false or bogus self-employment. There will be lots of people who are willingly self-employed and who will have chosen that course for their own benefit. The issue is to manage the narrative. Rising self-employment does not automatically mean rising false or bogus self-employment.

On the question of definitions, I am not going to comment on the individual circumstances of anybody here, whether at this committee or in the wider environment because I have no background information or details on it. However, there are common law tests in our legislation regarding integration, mutuality of benefit and control and enterprise tests. All of these exist. We have a framework with which we can make a definition and a decision around managing direct employment or self-employment. It has always been a principle of our systems that we can look beyond a written contract and make a judgment on the operation of that contract. The structures are there.

The question was asked about the point at which an individual can be determined to have become an employee. That will vary, depending on the circumstances. It will change and will depend on the individual, which is part of the complexity of this particular issue. Everybody's circumstances are different and we expect our legislation to take into account the fact that people are not the same. I may not want to be judged to be an employee simply because I have had one contract with one employer for a particular period. I may not want to be converted to employee status against my will. It is about utilising the frameworks that we have and the legislation that the courts have developed over many years, which have served us well in being able to make these determinations. They must be done on an individual basis and we have the framework to do that.