Mr. Martin McMahon:

I am glad Deputy Murphy brought up RTÉ because it is a specific case. The director general of RTÉ brought in a private company - not the Department of Social Protection, Social Welfare Appeals Office or the Revenue - to do a scoping exercise because of decades of complaints from within RTÉ that workers are misclassified as self-employed. More than 81 situations were investigated. The exercise was limited in scope, only looked back over a short period and those who were looked at were also limited. Regardless, 81 of those workers were found to have been misclassified as self-employed. Had the Department of Social Protection done what it should have done and carried out the investigation, no Statute of Limitations provision would have restricted how far back the Department could look. It could look back to the year dot and declare that a person owes X amount in PRSI. Eighty-one people in one company is a clear indicator that bogus self-employment is being used as a business model in RTÉ. Yet, it was only when the Committee of Public Accounts said it would investigate bogus self-employment that the Department of Social Protection issued a statement that it was looking at RTÉ. It is late it the day to be looking at it now. Since the State has not looked at it and the Department of Social Protection has not carried out an inspection, there has been no sanction. These workers, who had been deprived of their rights going back years, were then offered derisory employment contracts that made them worse off than being bogus self-employed. That should never happen. A notice should have issued to RTÉ for all back payments to the year dot.