Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

As to follow-up in cases where people are found to be mis-classified - we are aware that there were inspections by Revenue in the construction and other sectors - what steps have been taken by the Department in reclaiming PRSI, either itself or in co-operation with Revenue, to ensure that we have proper compliance? Such widespread practices are a huge loss to the State.

As an example of that, I want to correct Ms Gordon's suggestion that it was perhaps the unions who pushed for those test cases at the time. We can definitely clarify. It was part of the 2000 correspondence to the Committee of Public Accounts at that time where representatives of the couriers industry - not of one company but the industry - were in correspondence and engagement with Revenue, which has confirmed that. It would certainly seem that this was an industry-led push for categorisation because they were engaged in the same process with Revenue.