Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for her comprehensive response. Her passion for this is obvious to all.

One thing the Government should be doing is encouraging the public service to become leaders in this area so that others might follow. We attempted in the past, albeit it was a poor attempt, to decentralise public service operations to various locations throughout the country. Perhaps the technology, knowledge and know-how to do that well did not exist back then. It exists right now and from talking to many public servants who are working remotely from their homes in an effective way in towns and villages across east Galway, I know that this is possible now. It would be helpful if the public service itself was seen to take a leadership role in the area of remote working, to lead the way, to find the mechanisms for doing it successfully and then to use those mechanisms as an exemplar for others to follow in its footsteps.

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