Mr. Finn Hegarty:

Sure. I will address the Deputy’s first point about mindset. I agree with that. It is all about a big mindset and culture shift for these companies, particularly if one is coming from a co-located office to a hybrid workforce. It is not just a case of getting a policy and the technology. It is very much about creating, as Ms Mangan mentioned, this remote-first culture and a fundamental change in the way we work. That is, in the way that we communicate with each other, how we manage people, how we manage performance and how we on-board staff. These are all fundamental changes in the way of working as a business. That is not easy as we went through this for the past seven years and we did not have the support. I see Grow Remote out there now and we need to support these small businesses with that content and in how they can make that shift.

On the Deputy’s point in respect of the hubs, that is something where we give our employee the choice as to whether he or she wants to come in. We have an office in Dublin, and a couple of smaller offices around Ireland as well, and we give them a choice. If they do not have a suitable working arrangement in their house where it could be shared accommodation straight out of college, we would compensate them in going into a local hub. I even worked last week from Achill Island and there are these very good hubs out there that have the connectivity and the infrastructure to support these roaming in and out workforces.

On the Deputy’s final point on the opt-out policy, it certainly makes sense for certain businesses that would not necessarily need this requirement to have this exemption, whether this is construction or services for businesses. I will pass over to Ms Mangan now, please.