In 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.
Whilst the scale of my Department’s investigation in RTE is significant and involves retrospective analysis of the engagement of many workers, I am satisfied that my Department has engaged in this investigation in a comprehensive and timely manner. Furthermore, I am satisfied that my Department has the capacity and resources to fully address this matter.
Decisions with respect to insurability of employment decisions are made through the application of criteria as set out in the Code of Practice for the Determination of Employment Status developed in 2001 by the Employment Status Group, including the Social Partners, established under the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness. These criteria, which are applied to each case, were initially developed based on the analysis of a number of cases determined in the late 1990s together with the principles established in cases considered by the Courts. The Code of Practice was updated in 2007 and again in 2021. It is available on the Department’s website.
The criteria are applied by Deciding Officers in my Department on each occasion that they assess the PRSI status of a worker’s employment. Each worker, including each case currently under examination as part of the investigation into the employment status of contractors at RTE, is entitled to an individual decision and each decision is appealable to the Social Welfare Appeals Office. It is in the interests of workers, RTÉ and the Department that the investigations are progressed in a timely and efficient manner.
In conducting these investigations, the Department's fundamental objective is first, to ensure that workers do not suffer a loss of entitlement to social insurance benefits as a consequence of misclassification and, second, to ensure that employers collect and remit the correct amount and value of social insurance contributions. Where an investigation identifies that this has not been the case the workers record is corrected, and employers are required to remit the correct value of contributions back-dated as appropriated.
The Comptroller and Auditor General has examined the Department’s approach to the determination of employment/self-employment on a number of occasions over recent years, most recently in 2022. This examination included reviews of cases which it selected at random and found that cases were determined on their own merits through the application of the criteria set out in the Code of Practice.
