Mr. Martin McMahon:

The Department of Social Protection has not given us any specific number of the number of cases that are overturned by the scope section. We are told that it is approximately 30%. We are told that a very small number of cases come through the scope section to the social welfare appeals office. That is true, as was discussed in the Joint Committee on Employment Affairs and Social Protection in 2019. There is a reluctance on the part of employees or workers who claimed to be employees to use the scope section because they are afraid of being victimised at work. That was acknowledged by the Department of Social Protection as the overriding reason workers will not come forward. The Department uses test cases and it stated as much in the article in The Irish Timesto which I referred. The former Minister, Senator Doherty, went on to say that the Department uses test cases with the agreement of employers and workers. It is hard to see how one can get agreement from an entire industry of workers from 1995 and apply it to workers right across the board today. These workers have no idea why they are self-employed and none of them are informed as to why that is the case.