Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the debate. Since 12 March, the world as we knew it has well and truly been turned upside down. Many of the things we had previously taken as gospel in our transport planning are now in question. Further urbanisation, increasing commuter numbers, the decline of rural towns and more have been thrown into question by the onset of remote working on an unprecedented scale. Before 12 March the main roads into our cities were heaving with traffic each day from the early hours until late at night. Packed buses meant people were faced with a daily struggle to get to and from their workplaces. Today, many of those commuters are working from home. Those who must commute are doing so in a fraction of the time and buses operating at a fraction of the normal capacity are getting people to work faster. We have people who spent hours of their day sitting in cars instead of spending time with their families. We have had money being spent in local economies, which would previously been spent in major urban cities. We have fewer cars on our roads, which is driving down emissions and helping us to meet our climate change targets.

Amid all the tragedy and disappointment we have all experienced over the past six months, these changes are some of the few positives we can take from the experience. We have learned that spending more time with our families and in our communities does not have to be a mutually exclusive choice. The illusion that a person must be in their cubicle to be productive has been broken and employers in many industries understand that. Many will not return to their former ways of life unless they must. I believe we have a once in a lifetime opportunity to make this change permanent, at least partially. I accept that the speed of this transition could not have been predicted. What would previously have taken decades has instead happened over a six-month period. No Government could expect to react in that time. We do, however, find ourselves with important choices to make. First, we have the choice of how we choose to react to this change. Do we forge a return to the status quo and all the negatives that go with it?

Will we return to longer and longer commutes with more and more cars on the roads, spewing more and more toxic fumes, to jobs in our cities where we do not want or need to be? Instead, will we opt to be brave? Will we decide that we will retain this to the greatest extent possible? Will we ask ourselves how we can build a system that encourages those working from home to continue to do so in the long term while retaining access to services they need when they need them?

I do not believe we should go back to the status quo. I do not believe it is sustainable in the long run. We need to begin the work now to move in a new direction. Important work needs to be done if we are to achieve this. We need to start by expanding on the existing Amárach research and collect information on the number of employers and employees who are considering making the current arrangements permanent. Should we like to do so, we need to understand where in the country the people and businesses are and what they need. For employers in particular who could do so but who are not considering at least some element of continuing to work from home we need to understand their concerns and what needs to be done to support them. When this work has been done we will need to work to address their concerns. After this, we will need to assess how our transport system will work to assist it. I strongly believe a social dividend should come from the current crisis. The Minister should work towards this end now.

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