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

We have a target of 12 but have not yet reached that full quota because it is a specialised unit. We have invited people from around the country who were inspectors to join it before, possibly, we hand pick people. We are approximately three quarters of the way there. The training for the people who have already joined the unit has been finalised so the actual targeted examination of classifications started in earnest a number of months ago. That is alongside the re-evaluation of the legislation I have spoken about.

There are a number of outstanding and pending cases so it would not be fair to say that in the context of the 500 cases at which we have looked, the overwhelming response would be that people were not misclassified. This is much more nuanced and, probably, widespread at a much lower level than we anticipated. There is a general view among people that certain industries are very non-compliant in this area. The one we probably all go to has been the subject of a review and a very targeted joint inspection by the Department and Revenue and has been found to be, in the main, compliant. We are now concentrating on other areas that might not have popped into people's heads in the first instance such as the fitness, IT, graphics and pharmaceutical industries, the healthcare sector, broadcasting and media. There a number of significant pending investigations.

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