Dr. Kieran McQuinn:

The second part of the Chair's question was on the future of work and issues around a four-day week. Dr. Dooley can correct me if I am wrong, but I am not aware of any work that we have planned on that issue, unless my colleague, Professor Seamus McGuinness, who works on the labour side, is looking at something like that. I am not aware that he is. If it is a tangible and real proposal, it is something we would be very interested in assessing. I am not aware off the top of my head of any plans to address that particular issue.

In one sense, one could look back over the past year. It would be interesting to quantify, if one could, the difference for those who have been in work over the past year and how much they managed to get through on a given week compared to what they would normally have been able to do before Covid, and whether there was a dramatic improvement in productivity or an increase in people's productivity. A lot of people were working fewer hours, in particular younger people with families etc. In terms of a structured assessment of the issue, I am not aware of any plans we have as of yet to examine the issue of the four-day week.