Breaking Bogus Self-Employment

In October 2019, I blew the whistle on State organised and approved Bogus Self-Employment at the Oireachtas Social Welfare Committee – which you can find HERE

Following my appearance as a whistleblower witness. The Committee asked the Chief Appeals Officer of the Social Welfare Appeals Office to appear at the Committee to answer the serious allegations of wrongdoing I had given in evidence (using the department’s own documentation).

Some days prior to appearing at the Committee, the Chief Appeals Officer sent a written statement to the Committee which was a blanket dismissal of the evidence I had given as a witness. Unfortunately the Chief Appeals Officer refused to address the serious allegations of wrongdoing by her Office. Read J Gordon Opening Statement (.pdf)

On the 5th of December 2019, the Chief Appeals Officer and the Assistant Secretary of DEASP appeared at the Committee. With excellent questioning by Senators Alice Mary Higgins and Gerard Nash, the wrongdoing of the Department and the SWAO was laid bare.

You can listen to their exchanges below:

Following this appearance by the Assistant Secretary and the Chief Appeals Officer, Paul Murphy TD tabled a Dail question for the Minister of Employment Affairs and Social Protection –

Letter of 9th January 2019 from the SWAO confirming the use of Test Cases –

Letter from Secretary General Sullivan to the Public Accounts Committee confirming the use of Test Cases –

Faced with irrefutable evidence from the Secretary General of DEASP and from the Social Welfare Appeals Office that Test Cases were and are used to make unlawful self-employed determinations on groups and classes of workers, Minister Doherty doubled down on the denials from her Chief Appeals Officer and denied that the Chief Appeals Officer had deliberately misled the Oireachtas Committee –

In another of her ‘Mandatory but not Compulsory’ moments, Minister Doherty both admits and denies the existence of Test Cases in the same sentence. The facts are irrefutable, the DEASP and the SWAO use unlawful test cases to force thousands of workers into Bogus Self Employment. DEASP and SWAO are the biggest creators of bogusly self-employed workers which results in a loss to the exchequer of at least 1 billion euro every year.

The game is over. They know it’s over. They’re just stringing it out to try save face.

Martin

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