Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 7 February 2024
317. Deputy Ivana Bacik asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will make a statement on the SCOPE investigation into RTÉ; and if her Department is in a position to project when all cases will conclude. [5684/24]
View answerIn late 2020, my Department commenced an investigation into the PRSI classification of RTÉ’s contractors. RTÉ provided the Department with lists of 695 workers engaged on a contract basis in 2018, 2019 and 2020 and these formed the basis of the investigation. The scale of the Department’s investigation in RTÉ is significant and further workers may be brought into the scope of the investigation as it proceeds.
Employment status investigations can be complex; each case involves at least two parties and each case must be investigated having regard to its own facts and with an opportunity for each party to be interviewed and to make and respond to submissions.
It is in the interests of workers, RTÉ and the Department that the investigations are progressed in a timely and efficient manner.
It is a matter for RTÉ and the worker concerned to separately decide on their approach to the Department’s investigation, including whether to agree to a reclassification at the outset of an investigation or to appeal any resulting decisions by the Department.
The employer and the worker are entitled to have each case investigated separately and to have a separate decision issued.
I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
