Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Having listened to the Minister, I am hopeful that things are moving.

By the way, I thought the advertisement was good. It just needed something else with it to say there were legal protections. We have made progress and I take the Minister at her word, but I do not buy the technical argument because there is politics behind it. I am not saying the Minister is being duplicitous, but there are people in the country who do not want this legislation to be passed. When we say we need consultation, they are the ones who will insist on being consulted. Frankly, I do not care about them because this practice has continued for too long and they are the ones who have benefited from bogus self-employment. If there is a technical problem in the scrutiny of legislation, we could keep the amendment in the Bill and pass it. The section would not have to be commenced immediately. Earlier we debated the Child and Family Relations Act 2015 which was passed in 2015. There are still three sections which have not been commenced. Therefore, I do not buy the technical argument. As I said, we could pass the Bill into law and if additional scrutiny of the section is required, it need not be commenced just yet. If necessary, an amendment could be made to it. I see no reason to delay for technical reasons what is perfectly good, sound legislation. It could be amended further and refined, but let us put it in the Statute Book and say the practice is against the law, that fines will have to be paid and that there will be legal protection if there is bogus self-employment. As we all agree, why not do it?

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