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

As the Deputy pointed out, we already have legislation on working times, stipulating a maximum number of hours that anyone can work in a given week, although it is averaged over 16 weeks in order to facilitate shift work and so on. There is already a law in place in that sense. Working time also includes any of that time at home, but perhaps it is not enough. We engaged in a public consultation on remote working and received more than 500 replies, which is very encouraging. We are now examining a twin-track approach to this by giving people the right to request home working and requiring that employers take that seriously. Linked to that is a right to disconnect so that people do not find that working from home means they are always working. We want to avoid that. We are looking at other jurisdictions to see whether their laws have made a difference. There is little point in passing a law that does not really make a difference. We should have some proposals in the new year.

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