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

The misclassification of workers as self-employed is an issue that has exercised those of us in the Labour Party and the wider trade union movement for a considerable period. It costs the State hundreds of millions of euro in lost PRSI revenue and workers are deprived of key rights and benefits, in particular the full range of social welfare benefits and employment rights under Irish and European law. It is rampant in the construction sector. Last autumn, the general secretary of Connect Trade Union, Mr. Paddy Kavanagh, said that research indicated that the State was losing millions of euro. He wanted the Government to stamp out this practice, which was also resulting in workers being deprived of key rights and safeguards.

The Minister is correct, in that this practice is also found in the media, IT, pharma and many other sectors. While we welcome the Minister's establishment of a stand-alone team to investigate bogus self-employment, will the legislation apply penalties? We want tax avoidance laws to clamp down on this practice, as proposed by our Seanad Bill in the name of Senator Nash. There is no good reason for an employer who deliberately misclassifies the status of an employee not to be considered a tax and PRSI cheat and have the same penalties applied to him or her as would be applied to other tax avoiders. That is the way to stamp this out.

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