Mr. Neil McDonnell:

On the whole, this has worked out very well. We have to qualify that, however. We typically represent a lot of service businesses. You cannot mind the children remotely, so it is a case of horses for courses. There are businesses that can do this and others that cannot. We think the Government’s hub proposals are very useful in that regard. Yes, it is remote working but there is an element of centralisation involved.

That may be an answer for some of the retail units in rural towns and villages. Aside from the liability context, and a lot of businesses are waiting to see how this settles down because there have been some strange and interesting cases coming out of Europe on this, other aspects that must be considered in the long run are mental health, social engagement and workplace conflict and avoidance of same. Aside from the post-pandemic issues, some of the people who have been extremely busy post-remote working are counsellors, mediators and communication staff. We offer one of these workplace services. Whereas previously one could get an appointment almost on demand, now people who are ringing up, sometimes with quite serious concerns, are being asked to wait six, eight or 12 weeks to see a counsellor. There are down sides to this that we are not talking about openly, but let us keep them all in the round.