Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is a serious problem, a growing problem and one that needs to be tackled absolutely head-on. As I said, there was a time when people thought it was a niche issue. It is not. It is in the gig economy, IT, construction, universities, journalism and broadcasting. We know that it is happening; what we do not know is what the Government is actually going to do about it. The workers themselves miss out on so much when they are misclassified. I am talking about things like maternity benefit and other stuff that is really important. Workers are being excluded from that. They are coming into work. There is a mutuality of obligation that has to be established, but even when it is established, and if we take the case I have outlined, which has now been appealed by the employer, the employer now, presumably a State-funded agency, is spending the State's money to fight one of its workers because that worker has been forced into bogus self-employment. As part of the group, the Department should look at that and at how much money is spent by the State fighting workers who have an entitlement through the machinery of the State. That has to be looked at, but where the State is facilitating it, it is especially egregious.

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