Ms Bríd McKeown:

I re-emphasise that agency workers are a minority. Most workers are employed directly by their employers. The reports we heard of agency workers were specifically about workers recruited by agencies in their home countries and very much managed by those agencies. They were put into agency-owned accommodation and the relationship through their terms and conditions was with the agency rather than directly with the employer. For a group of workers in the south west this involved being forced to register as self-employed independent contractors in Poland and all their finances were processed in Poland. Essentially, when it came to Covid they were not able to access healthcare and did not have PPS numbers. They were EU nationals who had newly arrived in the State. They were specifically disproportionately affected during Covid in a very different way to people directly employed by their employers. There were increased barriers. This is something we have heard reports about only in the past two to three months and it is something we will definitely seek to investigate further.