RTÉ workers are protesting outside the gates of Leinster House this lunchtime over the issue of bogus self-employment. This is an issue I have raised with the Taoiseach and here in the Chamber on a number of occasions. A total of 396 workers were let go by RTÉ after the Eversheds review. Based on the figures provided to me here last week by the Taoiseach, 297 of those workers would have been employees at the time they were dismissed. What steps is the Government taking to redress the rights of those employees? This matter has been going on for a long time but does not seem to be getting the attention it deserves in terms of the injustice done to these people and to the many hundreds of other workers at RTÉ who have fallen victim to bogus self-employment and who are now fighting without getting results relating to their rights and what should be rightfully theirs under the law.

As the Deputy suggests, I always want to differentiate between RTÉ and RTÉ staff when we discuss the issue because what happened in RTÉ let the public down and caused a real crisis of confidence in the organisation. The staff of RTÉ have been put through the ringer. They have done nothing wrong and should be supported. All of us - RTÉ management, the governing authority and the Government - share a view regarding getting RTÉ back to where it needs to be. The Deputy is right to say that in late 2020, the Department of Social Protection, through its Scope section, commenced a review into PRSI classification of RTÉ contractors. RTÉ provided the Department with a list of 695 workers engaged on a contract basis in 2018, 2019 and 2020. These formed the basis of the investigation. More than 160 investigations have been progressed with formal decisions made in 138 of the cases. Ninety-three of these were determined to have an employee status, in other words, class A, while 45 were self-employed class S. I will not have time to go through my figures but I will come to the Deputy in writing on the rest of it.