Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is always good to see the Minister of State. I thank him for coming in.

I will start by quoting his colleague, the Minister for Enterprise Trade and Employment, Deputy Coveney, in response to a question from Deputy O'Reilly last November with regard to the platform economy. The Minister said that "Ireland has robust mechanisms for the determination of the employment status and the Government is committed to tackling false self-employment wherever it occurs."

Last night, I wandered up Camden Street, which is just ten minutes from here, and what Members will see outside any of the fast food restaurants are gatherings of young people - young men and women - hanging around in the dark waiting for a fare. It is the modern day equivalent of the old hiring fairs. I put it to the Minister of State that the Government is not committed to tackling false self-employment because if it was, it would have long ago tackled the issues of exploitation we can see on our high streets on any given evening in any major city in our country.

In December, the EU published a proposed directive on platform work, which was aimed at fixing the issues caused by the relationships between platform services and their workers. The directive aims to protect workers from exploitation by digital platform companies, such as Deliveroo and FreeNow. It is a directive that has been considerably watered down already. I have to put on record that I am hugely disappointed by the Government's position on this at European Council level, where the Government insisted on watering down the proposals that came with from the European Parliament in respect of this directive.Those who provide the labour for these companies - the riders and drivers - are not classed as employees but as self-employed, meaning they do not get the same rights and protections as employees, such as minimum wage and entitlements to sick pay or maternity leave. The working conditions of these so-called self-employed workers have been getting worse, with the average return from a delivery falling to less than €3, while the platform companies that hire them record massive profits. The lack of regulation has resulted in a toxic sector of the economy, with exploitation, dangerous working conditions and exceptionally low pay. Many of us have spoken about this situation for years, yet here we are, almost four years into this Government, and nothing has been done for these people.

Last week, the Department of Finance published a report on self-employment labour flows. The report denominates 70% of Ireland’s self-employed as "necessity entrepreneurs", based largely on whether they have any employees. However, what the 25-page report fails to take into account, investigate or even mention is the number of these so-called self-employed who are being exploited in the platform economy. Last September, five months ago, The Examinerreported there were upwards of 3,000 permanently active food delivery platform workers, not including dormant or part-time workers. A large number of the so-called self-employed the Department of Finance referred to are, in fact, operating for digital platform companies and are simply labelled self-employed so the likes of Deliveroo, which has only 20 employees in Ireland, can continue to exploit the legislative position and the vulnerable individuals who bear the costs of convenience and provide these multinational platforms with record year-on-year profits.

Simultaneously, we see lobbying from the platform economies towards the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment to introduce a so-called charter on flexible work, which would enshrine the rights of the platform companies to continue using these systems. I cannot express how disappointed I am with the failure to date of the Government to tackle this issue of gross exploitation, which we can see on our high streets across all of our major cities.

The EU directive, while welcome, does not go far enough. Does the Government intend to expand the provisions laid out in the directive and update the code of practice in determining employment status, which is about as clear as mud at the moment, or will the Government continue to ignore these workers, many of whom are immigrant students?