Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

When Ms Mangan spoke about challenges relating to the hybrid model and the way it works in the home, I connected with much of it. In my household, my wife was working from home five days per week for almost two years. She works for a wind energy company in Cork as an accountant. As people have gone back to work, her company has been good in providing four days at home and one at work. It gives the right to disconnect, as well as the opportunity to manage your own hours in some ways.

In my household, it is common for work to start before a child wakes up. Remote working gives that opportunity.

We need legislation probably because we cannot rely on trust. People who are currently in that hybrid model have told me they almost work over the hours because they do not want to lose the remote working balance they have. They have seen the opportunity it brings and its positive changes in their whole life structure. My area of Tipperary is approximately an hour away from four cities. For the past 20 years, we have seen cars parked just off a motorway and people carpooling or otherwise travelling to Cork every day. Many people used to have a round trip of two and a half or three hours each day. They consider the extra work they might be doing in the morning or evening to be a counteraction to the travelling to work that they used to do. They do not really see it as extra work. They decide to do it themselves but the companies are benefiting on the back of that. The employees feel as though they are benefiting on the back of that because they do not wish to lose the option of remote working. Have our guests experienced that with employees? We speak about the right to disconnect and it is really important but there is a hesitance for employees sometimes because they do not wish to lose what they believe has been an advantage in recent years.