I would be interested in further clarification from FR staff.
From a flight crew perspective, there are very few who are actually employed by Ryanair. Currently, all pilots set up their own
Irish Private Limited Company. You then sign a five year contract with Brookfield Aviation whereby you agree to outsource your companies services to one of their clients, in this case Ryanair. As the only qualified employee of your company (has to be registered in Ireland) you do the work. Once the five years is up, and if they choose, you can then be employed directly by Ryanair in Dublin. Basically to start with your self-employed.
I believe there is a similar deal with Cabin Crew whereby, once trained through external organisations, CC are employed by a CC agency such as Crewlink and Workforce.
Then when you take into consideration the ground handling roles, which are all outsourced...I'm not too sure where the comment below comes from...
"I work for Ryanair Uk Ltd (as do ALL Ryanair staff within the UK) And we pay tax NI ect, ect just like you!"
Hope that clarifies things!