John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I apologise to the Deputy. She referred to appeals. Many decisions have been overturned by the appeals section.

Another matter arose at the meeting of the joint committee from the Department's point of view. I am of the view that the report should cover this because it sets out the efforts that the Department has gone to, whether it was through its relationship with Revenue via inspections or through publicity campaigns. That would give a sense of the activity in which the Department was involved and the return this yielded. Regardless of whether the Minister accepts the amendment, as Chairman of the joint committee, I am in a position to state that I and all the other members of the committee would really appreciate the provision of this information in a timely fashion. We will be commencing hearings early in the new year and I do not believe the technical requirements of the amendment are very prohibitive. I do not think that the information sought is particularly difficult to correlate. It would be extremely useful. I will not name any sectors or companies because I do not want to reveal the work the committee is going to do. The factual information we receive is going to be very important. It is not hearsay or innuendo and it is not the case that somebody said such and such. We want to deal in facts and try to reach a determination. I am quite clear in that.

The officials from the Department indicated recently that the percentage of people who are classified as self-employed is diminishing. However, I informed them that it is diminishing as a percentage but increasing as a number because the workforce is growing. It is still a substantial number of people. In the context of the information being sought, and regardless of whether she accepts the amendment, I appeal to the Minister to give a commitment to deliver the relevant information within the suggested timeframe. It would be really helpful in the context of the work the committee has commenced..

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