Mr. Niall Cody:

We always do a small number of random investigations but it is probably not an adequate number for the purposes of drawing conclusions. Part of our audit programme is based on random examinations. These are to ensure that everybody has a chance of getting a friendly visit from their local Revenue office.

We have never specifically ruled out some elements of random, but what we will be doing over the next couple of years in this area will probably be more than the numbers the Comptroller and Auditor General would require. It will start with the sector. One thing that probably does not get discussed enough is that the drivers of misclassification are employers' PRSI contributions, but a bigger contribution at this stage is probably employment rights. When relevant contracts tax, RCT, came in in 1971, employee rights were probably not much different whichever way a person was employed-----