Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State.

I wish to ask about the Civil Service blended working framework, which the Minister lists as one of his main achievements. The Government has mandated public sector employers to move to 20% remote working. The intention of that policy was to support individual Departments in developing their own remote working policies. Has the 20% target been reached across the Civil Service? Is the target an average? How is it being measured and monitored by the Department of public expenditure? What kind of oversight role does the Department have in ensuring that other Departments’ remote working policies align with the framework set out by it? How are the Minister and his Department ensuring the same performance and standards despite the shift towards greater levels of remote working? It has considerable potential to reduce the number of hours workers have to spend commuting and take pressure off our transport infrastructure, but I have been contacted by constituents who feel it is harder than ever to get through to public sector workers in public-facing roles, for example, those answering telephones. How are we ensuring that standards are being met when people are working remotely and that there is some kind of uniformity? Are we measuring productivity, who is doing well and whether there are issues that we need to address? Obviously, not everything lends itself efficiently to remote working.