Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

There was an interesting moment when Mr. O'Connell was trying to describe what happened over a period of time and why we have more people self-employed in the industry. He referred to a severe recession and stated that workers became more reliant on themselves and went down the route of seeking jobs on a self-employed basis and that we now have an industry based on that system. Let us be honest. The usage of the flexible definition of what is a worker or an employee goes back much further than that. The notion that workers no longer have a set of entrenched rights regarding their lives and expectations has probably been around since the 1980s.

However, even if I accept what was stated regarding the recession and that construction workers had to redefine themselves because they had to work for themselves more and find odd jobs here, there and yon, why has the phenomenon of self-employment reached its current level at a time when the building industry is booming, building companies are making massive profits and one sees cranes all over the Dublin skyline? Some building companies have recently been involved in very controversial circumstances related to the national children's hospital, etc., and some are notorious for engaging people on self-employed contracts. I believe that self-employment is at such a high level because workers will not get a job unless they declare themselves self-employed contractors. It is the only way they will get a job. Some people who work in these Houses are in a similar situation. Regardless of whether it has happened by default, it has happened. The problem is that the prevailing attitude is there is nothing to see here and we should all move on. However, many workers can only get a job in their chosen field if they declare or define themselves to be independent contractors. As a result, they get less pay and have worse conditions and more insecurity. Workers checking out their entitlements and going to the Workplace Relations Commission or the scope section may mean that they lose their job because they are no longer of use to the contractor. We need to take this seriously and stop saying there is nothing to see. This is a real issue.