Gerald Nash (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I took the time in recent days to reflect on comments the Minister made in her reply to me on Second Stage in February 2018 when we were in the eye of the storm. It was the day of the big snow and we were all anxious to leave this place early and get back safely to our homes. The Minister expressed some concerns about the impact on what we describe as intermediary arrangements and expressed the view that all intermediary arrangements do not necessarily involve bogus self-employment practices. I understand what she meant by that and I entirely appreciate it but some egregious intermediary arrangement situations are used by key players in the airline industry, for example, to engage staff. These kinds of arrangements are deeply flawed, unethical, immoral and wrong.Any legislation to which these Houses finally agree needs to address these kinds of issues whereby companies are formed with Byzantine structures to protect the interests and modus operandiof large companies in, for example, the airline industry. As Members know, some very high profile media personalities are engaged in these kinds of practices, although I will not name names. Such behaviour is wrong, as are these corporate structures that are used to avoid PRSI and tax obligations to the State. Often, the people who, deliberately or otherwise, avoid their tax and PRSI obligations through such intermediary arrangements also host programmes on broadcast media, for example, decrying the fact that the State is not spending enough on health services, welfare and housing. To be frank, people involved in those kinds of arrangements have an absolute cheek, given the behaviour of some individuals in that context. Any legislative resolution to this problem needs to capture such intermediary arrangements while accepting that not all of these arrangements are necessarily designed to avoid tax or PRSI or to disguise the employment situation of a director of one of the companies.