Eoin Hayes (Dublin Bay South, Social Democrats)

I thank the Minister and his officials for creating a task force for the Fastway workers. I am conscious that we are not just talking about people who are in typical employment situations. We are talking about people who are self-employed, who are contractors and who are franchisees. According to the information I have, about 1,000 people are in that category as opposed to the 300 who were employed by Fastway directly. When we think about the self-employed provision that is available from the Department for people who will never be paid again, who are out of pocket, in some cases by tens of thousands of euro, there is a huge shift in our employment more generally towards the self-employed population. Having appropriate social protection provision for those people is a key issue we need to solve in this phase of employment. I am also particularly conscious of the fallout for those franchisees. Are any legal routes for them in recouping the moneys that they spent as a result of the franchisee arrangement they had with Fastway? If the Minister can give clarity on that, it would be helpful.

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