Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am concerned that people are being forced to present as self-employed to get work. It is an issue in the construction industry. We are not all living in cloud cuckoo-land, because it is. The returns to the national training levy - the 0.7% levy was correctly applied - is now 9% or €21 million less than profile. Why is it less than profile when employment is increasing and there has been a mass of returns? Is it because there is a large increase in self-employment in many businesses? The Minister is right that we do not want to impose levies on people, etc., but there is some reason for that.

There is much disguised employment. There are innovative people in disguised employment. There are people setting up as companies with one employee in employment.

Then there is an individual who is dependent on and under the control of the employer and who is forced into accepting self-employed conditions and being classified as in self-employment. As I have spent my life being self-employed, I know it is a different system.

See this speech in context