Mr. Martin McMahon:

I disagree that it is an open option. The way the process here works, as laid out by the Department of Social Protection, is that a worker must make his or her case first to the Scope section of the Department of Social Protection. Then the employer, and it generally is the employer, can appeal a decision by the Scope section which says that the worker is an employee, to the social welfare appeals office. If the social welfare appeals office overturns the Scope section decision, which it has done with every single courier case since 1993, then the worker's access to the courts starts at High Court level. Before the social welfare appeals office existed, Scope decisions were appealed to the Circuit Court directly. By using the social welfare appeals office, which is acting outside the legislation, it has raised the bar of access to the courts for workers. It is prohibitive for a worker to take a case to the High Court.