Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

When one speaks with, for example, young men in the construction industry, it is difficult to persuade them that working in fully ensured employment is as attractive as being established in an easily constructed self-employment wherein they pay minimal contributions but have no protection if they fall ill or have an accident. When they reach the end of their working lives, their pension entitlements may be significantly reduced. Since they are not employees, they lack fundamental protections.

Many workers in the IT and insurance sectors and so on are being offered a self-employment structure. We are moving away from the model in which people are at work. Instead of being genuine business owners involved in entrepreneurship, as the Minister described it, they are employees who have few options other than to accept the type of self-employment that is on offer, and often to their long-term detriment. This is a problem across a range of industries.

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