Mr. David Cagney:

As my colleague pointed out, mobility involves permanent moves. While we have come out of what might be termed an experiment, which is unsustainable in many respects because of the demands it placed on people, we are going into quite a new environment with blended working. The current thinking is that your right to a blended working arrangement is by reference to your role. It is not personal to the jobholder. If somebody decides to move to Letterkenny when opportunities arise under blended working and his or her role or aspirations for promotion change, we will have to tease out the commitment he or she has made in locating in Letterkenny. Those promotional opportunities may not arise there. These are the kinds of issues we will be working through with our colleagues in the trade union movement as we work through what a blended working model is going to look like. There is no easy solution to the point the Deputy has made but, with regard to the Irish language, it has been recognised there should be a real opportunity for people who are fluent and who wish to remain working within their home environments, which are in Gaeltacht areas in many cases. A number of queries have come across our desks in that regard recently.

We have to work through the longer-term implications for those people and for their organisations.