Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

I also want to follow up on the question of the four-day week. The Four Day Week Ireland coalition has highlighted how moving to a four-day week could reduce carbon emissions by up to 16% while also improving people's work-life balance and mental health. It is an important demand raised by the trade unions and the environmental movement and it constitutes an important part of the eco-socialist green new deal that we advocate. Earlier this month the Tánaiste said the four-day week was not something his Department was even considering. Are the Taoiseach and his Department considering it? If not, will they? Too often, tackling climate change is presented as being a matter of eco-austerity, greenwashing, new taxes on workers and cutting back on people's living standards but it does not have to be, and must not be, that way. Instead, an eco-socialist approach is about raising the quality of people's lives and tackling climate change together, transforming people's lives for the better and avoiding the climate catastrophe that is on the way. The demand for a four-day week without loss of pay is a perfect example of the approach. The approach allows the workers' movement and the environmental movement to come together to fight for this objective.

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