Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent)
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I would like to associate myself with the comments of Deputy Stanton regarding the quality of the debate. It is a very important conversation. I am struggling a little with the issue of the measurement of productivity. Businesses' key performance indicators and how they are used will vary, such as a call centre or coffee shop compared with a design house or a company in the construction sector, where business is really caught up with the scheduling of other contractors. It is difficult to say how productivity could be increased in the context of a shorter working week, yet productivity expansion, by its nature, is a competitive driver in all businesses. Is the general thrust of this concept of a four-day working week aimed largely at the technology sector, rather than being expansive to all industry? Other speakers have highlighted how difficult it would be in the context of care work and so on, where the working week cannot be compressed in that way. How many other sectors do our guests foresee this as capable of being incorporated into?

It would be good if we could be kept abreast of the results of the pilot as they arise. There might be much more interest in this concept if, as the pilot is developed, some of the early data that emerge could be made public.