Mr. Martin McMahon:

I thank the Deputy for the question. Case law specifically precludes test cases. Each case must be taken on its own merits. Revenue has agreed that is the case. It has also agreed to label all couriers as self-employed based on a decision from a social welfare appeals officer in 1995. That decision was further clarified to the Committee of Public Accounts in 2000 where the Secretary General stated that a number of test cases were selected. Revenue has told the Committee of Public Accounts that is why couriers are classified as self-employed to this day. Are they still being implemented? Yes, they are. In 2016, a group of 16 construction workers took cases to the scope section where they were all classified as employees and not self-employed. That was then appealed to the social welfare appeals office, which voiced its intention to use those 16 cases as test cases. The 16 individual workers protested profusely that the State could not do that.