Mr. John McKeon:

I will say that the workers' rights issue is probably the most significant one. One thing that Deputies and others should be aware of is that people think the reclassification from class S to class A improves their social insurance position. In most cases, it does. It gives them access to illness benefit, which is the only scheme to which the self-employed do not have access. In some cases, however, it will reduce their benefits as well. I will give a made-up example. If I am a bookkeeper who works one week per month for a firm to produce its end-of-month accounts, if I am self-employed, that one week per month will give me 52 contributions. If I am an employee, it gives me 12. Therefore, these are consequences of which people need to be aware. The actual implications for workers are not all black and white, which is why one of the appeals from RTÉ is from a worker. Other workers, as we know, are not happy with the outcome. They are just not happy and they are appealing. Therefore, people need to be conscious of that as well.