Marie Sherlock (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Mangan and Mr. Hegarty for attending the committee today. Ms Mangan gave a passionate contribution on the potential of remote work. I hear what she is saying in terms of legislation alone not being sufficient. It is, of course, vital to have a strong legislative framework. We are here today because we had pre-legislative scrutiny of the right to request flexible work.

Last week, the Government announced a work-life balance Bill. Both proposed Bills have a very rigid perspective on who should access remote and flexible work. Should the Government see remote and flexible work as separate things? From the perspective of the Labour Party, we see the right to flexible work with regard to the hours and place of work as being the same thing. We produced a Bill on the right to request that. I would be interested in hearing the views of the witnesses on the separation of flexible and remote work, in particular in the context of everything they have said with regard to women and other groups of workers who may want to access the labour force.