Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. I intend to publish a code of practice on employment status. The purpose of the code of practice on determining employment status is to explain, in as clear and as user-friendly a way as possible, what the courts have decided constitutes an employment relationship. It is an explanatory guide and it sets out and explains the legal obligations that already exist. Workers and employers are entirely bound by these legal obligations and, even if the code did not exist, they would be bound by these legal obligations because they have been set down by the courts through case law.

The code is an important awareness-raising tool in the effort to combat false self-employment in the economy. It was first drafted in 2001 and revised in 2007. However, as the labour market and relevant case law have developed since then, a revision is now needed. The work of revising the code was undertaken by my Department, Revenue and the Workplace Relations Commission, so there are three players in this. The Deputy referred to a meeting of the joint committee. Putting this into legislation is tricky and is not as straightforward as it might appear.

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