Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy has raised two separate issues. Let me be very clear, in case anybody thinks I am soft on this, bogus self-employment or disguised employment involves the wilful evasion of income tax, PRSI and social insurance liabilities and it will not be tolerated. There are mechanisms in place. I hear what the Deputy is saying about people not being given a choice but they have a choice to report it thereafter. If we do not know about it, we cannot inspect; if we cannot inspect we cannot catch people and if we cannot catch people we cannot fine them and put them in prison. We want to send out a clear message that for us to tackle the small amount of people who are taking the Mick, we need to be told about it. When we do the advertising campaign on scope we will tell people loudly and clearly. I will make sure we will monitor the increase in the number of reports coming into scope because if there is not an increase, we are definitely doing something wrong.

While I do want to extend to self-employed people all the benefits that employed people currently have, I absolutely do not want to increase the money self-employed people pay. I want to make sure there is an equilibrium and balance between what an employee pays and what a self-employed person pays and that it is the same. If anybody is going to pay the extra it is the people who only have one contract with one person, and this is the responsibility of the Revenue Commissioners and the Department of Finance. Let us look at that as being a contract tax or a contract self-employment tax, as opposed to taking more money from self-employed people who have had the gumption to provide employment for themselves.

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