Executive Summary
What is the PCSO
The PCSO has been established to support and promote the Professional Contracting Sector. It’s membership consists of service providers to professional contractors.
The PCSO has as its mission to help establish a clear, fair and practical, tax and legislative framework in Ireland to cover the Professional Contracting Sector. The Objective of the PCSO is to ensure the sector is Recognised, Nurtured and Supported to allow Professional Contractors to continue providing support to MNC and Indigenous Irish companies that make a significant contribution to the Irish economy.
The PCSO members has been involved in this sector for over 15 years and its members provide services to over 6,000 professional Contractors at present.
The PCSO Forum
The PCSO has created a forum to bring all the relevant stakeholders around the table with a view to establishing best practice across the sector.
This has been a “Round Table” initiative with an independent Chairperson attended by a wide range of stakeholders including:
- Contractors Representative Organisations
- Representatives of Large Irish and International Companies whom engage Contractors
- State and Semi-State Organisation with an interest in the Sector
- Recruitment Companies
- PCSO Member Firms
The objective is to recognise the importance of professional contractors to the Irish economy and to develop common sense solution to any issues which might arise taking into consideration the views of varied stakeholders.
Three Forums have been undertaken over the last 18 months and a survey was undertaken by Professor Dermot Duff and we will refer to these findings in this submission.
A copy of the Special Report produced by the PCSO and endorsed as a good common sense solution by the participants of the Forum.
Conclusion
We are focused on the area in which we have expertise namely, the one man professional company. These professionals are quite unique and tend to be involved in the IT, Pharma, Engineering, Bio tech, Finance sectors as well as several others. They are epitomised by the roles they take on. These are contracts of short and unknown duration, in the project driven sector and including many capital projects throughout Ireland. They provide their services on a flexible basis, invariably having no notice or a one week notice period. They enable capital projects and projects of an unknown duration to be based in Ireland by many MNC’s and make.
Ireland an attractive and competitive location to base these projects and investment. These individuals generally command attractive rates that compensate them for their short term nature and in many cases they are required to live away from their home.
We strongly believe that for the benefit of Ireland Inc. and our ability to compete for and win International Investment and Projects we are heavily dependent on, we need to nurture and support this sector and bring clarity to the whole area of allow ability of expenses.
We in the PCSO have been tackling this issue for over 2 years with a wide range of stakeholders and we are drawing on this experience for our submission.
