Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That is correct but, as I indicated on the day the heads were published, we intend to strengthen that so it is not just a procedural right. It cannot be the case that an employer just ticks one of 13 boxes or ticks another box. This will be more than a procedural right. If the rejection is manifestly unfair, the WRC will be able to respond to that. However, we have to be realistic as well. There cannot be an absolute right to remote working. People understand that there are a huge number of jobs that cannot be done remotely, such as construction, most of retail, hospitality and manufacturing. I will not bore members with the list as they all know how many jobs cannot be done remotely. It is also the case that there is other work that it might be possible to do remotely but by doing that the services provided to the public would be diminished and, perhaps, business performance would be reduced. That is not fair either. We have to get the balance right here in how this lands. The view of the Attorney General, which is very strong, and I have 36 pages of legal advice on this, is that there are strong limitations on the extent to which the Government can intervene and alter a contract that an employer and employee have entered into freely and legally.

The legislation can be strengthened and I intend to strengthen it. I hope some good proposals emerge from the committee when it does its pre-legislative scrutiny. What happened in the pandemic is that remote working or home working happened suddenly. There was a big change as a consequence of the pandemic which was largely positive, but a lot of complicated things were not teased out. We have to tease them out now. Health and safety is an example. How is that going to apply in the home? To what extent would the employer be responsible for an injury in one's home office or if one burns oneself in one's kitchen while one is on a work break? Many of these things have to be teased out, and they could not be teased out during the pandemic. We have an opportunity to do that now. That is why in-depth pre-legislative scrutiny by the committee would be very welcome on this legislation. I am very open-minded about changes and improvements, but I do not want to cod people either. There cannot be an absolute right to remote working because some jobs cannot be done remotely and people need autonomy to run their businesses as they see fit.