Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish to make two points before going into the detail of the issues that have been raised by the Deputies. In the debate that is to ensue regarding the right balance between working at home and working in an office that is generally located in a city, we should acknowledge that there is a value in having city centres that are vibrant and busy. There is a value in that and this is not just an argument about Dublin city centre. It is an argument that is important for many cities across our country. In making decisions regarding where work is to be located in the future, it is important that we do not lose sight of the value of having vibrant urban cores in our cities. In the process to which the Deputies refer, there are benefits to the employer in the decision of people to work from home. There are savings to the employer in terms of rent for offices, the size of offices required and their location and there are efficiencies that employers can enjoy when their employees work from home some of the time. If that benefit is there for employers, then we must ask what the role of the taxpayer is in supporting that decision and making more funding available for it. These are the issues that need to be teased out.

I have frequently said to Deputy Naughten that we may end up with something that is very blended in comparison to where we are at the moment. Right now, very few people are working in offices and most are working from home. It may well be the case that the stable equilibrium we end up is not the opposite of that but is somewhere in the middle. It is an issue that needs to be teased out. We must consider the benefits employers may gain by having more of their staff working from home.

A final point to emphasise in this debate is what this means for our economy overall. There is value in workers, particularly young workers and those who are at the start of their careers, being in an environment in which they are working with other employees. A big pillar of our economy is that we are skills-based. How are those skills developed? They are developed in the workplace. It is not in the long-term interest of those who work for employers all over our country or in the long-term interest of the development of skills to have more and more people not spending any time with their fellow employees in an office environment. These are the issues that we need work on, debate and tease out.

I hope that the availability of one or more vaccines next year will facilitate the return to offices.

We then need to look at how this can be managed safely, while remaining mindful of some of the points on which I have just touched. As regards how this will be done, an interdepartmental group on remote working strategy has been established. This is chaired, appropriately, by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. This group looks at these debates in carrying out its work and I hope this work will form a very important input in resolving some of the issues the Deputies have raised.

The current position is that remote working costs incurred by an employer wholly and exclusively for the purposes of the business may be deducted by that employer in the normal course of calculating the business's tax liability. Depending on the nature of an expense, it may be a revenue expense deductible wholly in the first year or a capital cost qualifying for allowances over an eight-year period. This is in line with the treatment of similar costs incurred for employees working from the employer's place of business.

It is important to recognise that not every employer's business can be undertaken by employees working from home and that not every employee is able to work from home. This may be because of any of a variety of reasons, including the nature of his or her home environment.

From the perspective of the individual employer, there is no specific tax credit available to employees as a result of working from home. I am advised by Revenue, however, that where eworkers incur certain extra expenditure in the performance of their duties of employment remotely or from home, such as additional heating or electricity costs, a Revenue administrative practice is in place that allows an employer to make payments of up to €3.20 per day to such employees, subject to certain conditions, without deducting PAYE, PRSI or USC. Revenue has confirmed that PAYE workers using their primary residence as a workplace during the period of the Covid-19 restrictions qualify as eworkers for the purposes of this practice.

As I have already noted, work is ongoing in my Department with regard to this issue. An interdepartmental group is in place to consider the issue of remote working more generally. I believe that the work of this group will provide a way to debate this matter with the Oireachtas. It is for that reason that I do not propose to accept the amendment.

See this speech in context