Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The point was made about 2017 and the misclassification and the €60 million and so on. However, Ms Winters did not acknowledge that in 1999 the Committee of Public Accounts instructed Revenue to investigate bogus self-employment in the construction industry. A level of 20% was identified. This is not something that only happened in 2017 or 2015; it goes back to 1999.

What I am hearing from the two federations is that there is legislation and that workers should use it and it should be strengthened and so on. In 1979, I left school and began work in the post office. I knew exactly what I was going into. I was employed by An Post. I had a contract and a probationary period before being given full-time employment. That is not what is happening now. In the courier industry, one works for a company but one is given a contract stating that one is self-employed and looks after one's own holiday pay and such things and has no rights. The situation is similar for Ryanair pilots. They are on contracts stating that they are not directly employed by Ryanair even though they are working for Ryanair, their rosters come from Ryanair and they must be present at certain times to fly particular planes. This fundamental change in the industry is the problem. If thousands of workers such as journalists and those working in the media and film industries, as well as parts of the public sector, are going into these types of situations, we are heading for difficulty unless the current position is changed. It has reached a point that workers and employers are looking for flexibility in regard to working a 20-hour week or 25-hour week if that suits and to the absolute extreme whereby the only option many workers are given is a self-employed contract. That is the problem. The CIF and IBEC must be able to say whether that is right or wrong. If they think it wrong, they should instruct and encourage employers to recruit directly, rather than utilising self-employment contracts.