Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

A four-day working week without loss of pay raises far wider issues than climate. I am happy to look at evidence of any policy initiative and its impact on climate. If there is data, I will examine it. Clearly, things such as remote working which reduce people's use of public transport is a way of doing the same. If people work one day from home, they will get much of the savings. Every year, we will review policy proposals that are submitted. We rely on the advice of the Climate Advisory Council to evaluate some of those policies. It depends on what happens when a person is not working and if output is the same will there be a saving of carbon emissions. Many other accompanying policies would have to be put in place to see whether such an initiative would have a significant impact. In the short term we must work on the fabric of our buildings, on the make up of our transport fleets and the shape of our generation capacity. Those are the big items we must shift.

See this speech in context