Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy is absolutely correct. The kinds of legislative change we need to think about include the right to request remote working or homeworking; the right to disconnect, so that the employee is not always at work when at home, which could be oppressive for people; and the risk to the country of losing people who currently live and work in Ireland to remote working from, perhaps, the Canary Islands, Ibiza, Poland or India. That is a risk to us in terms of losing jobs and revenue, so we need to be wise to it too.

Access to broadband is improving. The national broadband plan is happening now and is very much a reality on the ground. Hopefully, it will take four or five years, not six or seven. I am glad that as leader of the previous Government, we pressed ahead with it. We got almost no support from any other party but I do not think anyone would wish to cancel that contract now.

There is funding, both from my Department and that of the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, to develop remote hubs over the next couple of years. I have seen some great ones throughout the country, particularly where an old heritage building, such as an old bank or an old post office, in the middle of a village or town has been brought back to life. There are great opportunities in that regard.

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