Ms Susanne Rogers:

The digital transition could be an enormous opportunity for those furthest removed. At the height of Covid we had all these headlines in the Financial Times and The Guardian about digital nomads. To be a nomad and able to work from anywhere would provide capacity for our Travelling indigenous population to be trained up to be able to work from anywhere. There is definitely something that could be harnessed in that space. The return to the office is more about the value of office space, the devaluing of office space and people in the city than it is about needing people to be in at a particular place and time. At a time of full employment, if an employer was to turn around and tell people they needed to be back in five days a week they would be asking whether they really did and be looking somewhere else.

There are opportunities for employers and employees to be more flexible. I am always conscious there are some people for whom, as the Senator said, the 9-5 is never going to work. Their lives are maybe slightly chaotic or they are in vulnerable situations. It is about meeting people where they are at. There is something that can be harnessed in that digital transition space. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind, as a policy analyst who will be replaced with ChatGPT before too long, this is a matter of what kind of skills people have that are saleable and long lasting. It is about those communities, such as the disabled community mentioned by the Senator, as well as our migrant population and Traveller population. The digital space could be absolutely transformative by enabling working from home.

From being at events, we are seeing more and more young people with disabilities going through third level and then nothing. The third level system is now geared towards a much more diverse student population, which is to be welcomed – we are some of the best-educated people in Europe – but then graduates with disabilities have nowhere to go with those skills. There is a definite gap there as they transition. On office space, I appreciate these are the types of jobs that are probably more high-end, but not necessarily. There is still data entry work, sales order processing and all of that and it does not necessarily need to be done in the warehouse; it could be done somewhere else. If employers can be clever and savvy, there is potential in that digital space for disadvantaged communities.

That is a space for schools and third levels. The CE schemes and employment schemes give people those kinds of tools. There are opportunities there, no doubt. I do not think I have answered the question, but there you go.