Sinn Féin TD and Chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), John Brady, has said revelations at today’s PAC meeting that RTÉ has now paid over €5 million to regularise the employment status of workers, and that government Departments and state bodies availed of a recent amnesty to correct the misclassification of workers, exposes the scale of the bogus self-employment problem.
Speaking after the meeting, where officials from the Department of Social Protection, Revenue and the Workplace Relations Commission were challenged on the state’s response to bogus self-employment, Teachta Brady said:
“Bogus self-employment has long been an issue for workers and for the economy as a whole.
“As a result of my questioning, the Department confirmed that RTÉ has now paid €5.2 million in order to regularise the employment status of workers, with 208 individuals reclassified as employees.
“This is a very significant and growing sum, with the Department still having to work through around 100 outstanding cases. It demonstrates the scale of the problem when workers who should have been treated as employees were instead classified as self-employed.
“At the same time, officials confirmed that government Departments and state bodies were among those who availed of the recent disclosure opportunity introduced following the Karshan judgement to correct the misclassification of workers.
“Over 280 submissions were made between September 2025 and the end of January 2026, with these disclosures involving gross tax adjustments of €26.7 million relating to over 6,600 employees.
“Of particular concern is the confirmation that government Departments and state bodies were among those availing of this amnesty. The Karshan judgement was delivered in 2023, and Revenue confirmed that they wrote to all Departments in light of that ruling, yet it appears that some parts of the state only moved to regularise workers in the last few months.
“That raises serious questions about the message this sends, firstly the fact that the State has workers wrongfully classified as being self employed and secondly acts so slowly to address the issue, needing an amnesty to do so, what signal does that send to private employers about their obligations to workers and to the law?
“Officials also confirmed that in some cases this related to single employers making disclosures concerning hundreds of employees. These figures demonstrate that what we are seeing is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to bogus self-employment in this state.
“This problem is most acutely felt by workers themselves, who have been denied their entitlements — left with no access to an occupational pension, no paid sick, paternity or maternity leave, no redundancy pay, no fixed breaks or rest periods, and no paid annual leave or public holidays.
“Bogus self-employment denies workers their rights and shifts an unfair financial burden onto the state. It is essential that a far more robust approach is put in place to identify and tackle this practice, to ensure that workers receive the protections and entitlements to which they are legally entitled.”
ENDS