David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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I thank our witnesses for coming in today. I have just a few questions. The heads of the Bill require every employer to have a remote working policy. There are some forms of employment where remote working will not arise. I am thinking of businesses such as hairdressing. The person has to be on the premises to cut someone's hair. In situations where remote working would not work for employees, will it be possible to opt out of having a policy? It does not make any sense to be required to have a remote working policy when all employees have to be on-site and cannot work remotely. The Department might give consideration to that because the heads state, "An employer who, without reasonable cause, fails to bring to the attention of its employees the established and maintained Remote Working Policy", will be committing an offence but that does not provide for an opt-out from having one in the first place. Certain employers may not need to have such a policy for various reasons. The Department might look at that.

Does the Bill envisage hybrid working where people may work at home or in a remote hub for one or two days a week and go into the office for another two or three days? Is it all or nothing? Can that be built in or is it implied in the legislation?

My third question has to do with loneliness, isolation and so on, which has been mentioned. I have been speaking to some younger people who have been working remotely and they are really craving to get back into the office for the social interaction. One young man told me that he was at home in his own kitchen talking to himself all day and that it was driving him nuts. In situations where remote working does not work, can a request be made to go back to the office? It could suit many employers to have their workers working remotely and to dispense with the office completely. It would be a massive saving for an employer to not need to have an office at all or if the number of work stations or the space rented in an office block could be reduced. Is it possible for the employee to request to dispense with remote working and to go back to the office or even to go back to a hybrid model of some sort? Will employees be locked into working remotely even if it does not work out for them for whatever reason?

There is also an implied issue with respect to the equipment that might have to be made available. If somebody requests to work remotely and that request is granted, it seems to be implied that, on foot of that, the employer would have to make equipment available at the remote location. Depending on the work, we may be talking about desks, chairs, computers, printers and whatever else. Does that imposition on the employer naturally follow on from an agreement on working remotely? It seems to be implied in the legislation that it would. Maybe it does and maybe it does not. If it does not, the issue of the employer being responsible for the health and safety of the employee who makes the equipment available arises. There may be extra costs there.

Issues of taxation, data protection and codes of practice are also mentioned. Data protection is a particular concern for certain employers. I believe remote working is a very good idea in certain instances, as I believe we all do. It saves on travel costs, saves time, improves quality of life and, in many instances, can also improve productivity. However, the issue of data protection arises. Some employers have told me they are concerned about it, especially in remote working hubs where a number of people are working at desks side-by-side. Some employers have told me that if there is to be remote working, they want their own discrete, secure space where their employees will work so that they are doing cannot be overheard or made available to competitors and so on. That is something I would like the witnesses to comment on.

I see in some of the documents I have read that IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland are being asked to promote remote working among their clients. Will the officials comment on that? How is it going down? Are they doing it strongly? How will this Bill impact on that?