Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 9 December 2021

Public Accounts Committee

2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Social Protection
Chapter 9 - Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 10 - Management of Social Welfare Appeals
Chapter 11 - Controls Over the Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment

9:30 am

Mr. John McKeon:

No, each person who comes looking for a determination gets his or her determination based on his or her own merits. To give an example, my Department has staff who work as couriers because they bring documents back and forth around our offices. They are employees of the Department; they are not self-employed. The staff of some of the big courier companies, such as An Post, are not self-employed. It is nonsense to suggest everybody who works in the courier industry is classified as self-employed. It is just nonsense.