Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I respectfully disagree. I also suggest that Mr. Mulligan does not have data to back that up. He has a feeling that most people did not work successfully from home. I will tell him that I have a feeling that most people did work successfully from home. I know that because they tell me that. Mr. Mulligan knows that as well, however, because the same as me and others, he probably also worked successfully from home. Again, this is where I fundamentally disagree with the starting point for this. It is not starting from the point of view of trusting workers and assuming they will do the right thing. I am not surprised given the person that is heading it up, but still contained within this legislation is an assumption that workers are going to be hanging the latch when they are at home, and that the balance must be in favour of the employer preventing it. It is actually a really positive move for workers. I genuinely wish the Tánaiste and his Department had come at this from the perspective of trusting workers and building on that which was done during the pandemic.

The lesson many people learned during the pandemic was that remote and hybrid working can work. The regret was that it was not done in a staged and planned manner, and that it was simply a case of snapping the fingers and saying now everyone has to work from home. People managed that despite the housing crisis and the overcrowded accommodation in which they were living. They managed it despite ropey broadband and despite sitting at the end of the bed with a laptop balanced on their lap, in many circumstances, but they managed. The Department is missing a trick if this legislation does not come from the perspective of positively looking at how workers do this. All that is in it - not all, but a substantial portion - and what is being discussed in the media and by others is the right for an employer to say "No". I think that is the wrong place to start.