Mr. Dermot Mulligan:

The Deputy is right - and we are very clearly in agreement on this - about the potential for good across a whole range of policy areas, including in the interest of employers and firms, in the interest of employees, in the interest of the environment and so on. We are very clear about that. That is why we have a national remote work strategy, of which this right to request remote work is a key recommendation. However, in putting in place a framework to allow for a right to request remote work, we have to balance the various interests and views, including those of businesses, business owners, employers, employees, trade unions and so on. The committee has heard some quite divergent views as to what has been proposed. As a Department, it is for us to review those views and to try to find a way that advances the overall agenda to achieve the objectives, which we both agree are really good ones and important to get to, but to do so in a way that does not infringe the rights and responsibilities of the various interests. One of those is business owners' constitutional rights in respect of their businesses. We have legal advice as to how far we can go in that regard and we have to take that into account as well. In addition, as has been said here today and on other occasions, in the marketplace many employers are offering fully remote work from day one, some are offering hybrid working and so on. There is a whole range of situations in the real world, whereas, from the point of view of the legislation, we need to put in place a framework that seeks to be fair to everyone and seeks to put in place protections in order that employers deal with everyone's application fairly and that employees deal with their applications and their requests in a responsible manner as well. We need to try to find a middle way or to get a balance that allows for the development of this agenda in a good way, a structured way, and one in which we achieve all the things the Deputy and I have talked about today as public goods.