Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That is a joint project involving the Department of Finance, Revenue Commissioners and my Department. My Department has a particular interest because where bogus self-employment exists, we lose out on PRSI. This is because we do not get employer's PRSI. More significantly, the people concerned do not get the same social benefits as they would were they employed. A joint working group is addressing this. I met my officials this morning to discuss it. We expect the report to be published in the next couple of weeks.

Having said that, it is important to point out something to the people who are expressing the view that there has been a significant rise in self-employment and that this corresponds to bogus self-employment: the statistics do not support that view. The proportion of people who are self-employed and those employed are approximately the same. The latest CSO quarterly household national survey figures show that the increase in employment was almost entirely in employment rather than self-employment. Therefore, the idea that there has been a vast increase in self-employment figures due to bogus self-employment is not supported by the facts.

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