Mr. Mark Doheny:

We did an international review and looked at other countries where there was a right to request remote work. We looked at what they do in other European member states, whether by agreement only or by legislating within the collective bargaining fold. We focused on the ones that had a similar right to request, which had been committed to in the remote work strategy. We did not copy the UK in any way, shape or form. We looked at New Zealand, the Netherlands and the UK and there were positives and negatives in all regards. The UK is tweaking its legislation post Covid and so is the Netherlands. The pandemic has forced every country to look again at the legislation it had in place. The Bill was drawn primarily from the public consultation, stakeholder involvement and contributions. We got very telling and detailed contributions from private individuals, business representative groups and trade unions and all those were reflected in the Bill.