Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak on the motion. As we all know, yesterday was International Women’s Day, a very important day to recognise the social, political and economic achievements of the women in our lives and societies, and across the globe. It is also an opportunity for us to focus greater attention on women’s rights, gender equality and equal treatment and representation. With that in mind, I was shocked and saddened to see the results of the Indeed's International Women’s Day employment survey this week. The survey revealed that up to 40% of women in Ireland have considered quitting their job in the past 12 months due to burnout and the pressures of family life.

Let us reflect on that for a moment. Well over one third of our female workforce have contemplated quitting their jobs due to the fact that they are feeling overstretched or that they can no longer manage balancing their working life with their family life. That demonstrates that this is not an issue for individual employers or organisations but a systemic issue that requires a widespread policy approach. It demonstrates the specific challenges women still face in the workplace and is a stark reminder that we still have a very long way to go in advancing gender equality in this country. Efforts should be made to better understand how to properly support our female workers to ensure they are not feeling overwhelmed and overstretched. Employers must create supportive working environments and address the challenges women face in the workplace. Women have much to contribute to our workforce but their career paths are hampered by burnout and by their decision to have children. This is a burden felt mostly by women and not men.

Women should not feel this way. It is completely unacceptable and it is an absolute shame on our society. Mothers should not have to put their careers on hold but should instead be given flexibility to work around childcare. A part of allowing this flexibility would be to introduce flexible and remote working.

The right to request remote work Bill does not go far enough in ensuring that people are entitled to work remotely. Covid-19 has shown us that many jobs can be done remotely and employers' excuses that this cannot be done do not hold up anymore. Employers should be required to allow the option of remote working in cases where it is possible.

As well as providing support for our struggling female workforce, the introduction of flexible and remote work would reduce carbon emissions caused by the commute to work and would also allow and improve access to work to those who face obstacles in taking up employment, such as people with disabilities, those with long-term health conditions and those from rural communities.

There are, however, also risks as well as benefits and they must be highlighted. There is no doubt but that unscrupulous employers would use the fact that people are working from home to abuse their workforces and squeeze more out of them, as they would see it. I have heard stories of people working from home whose work supervisors have arranged work meetings for 10 o'clock on a Friday night. That is absolutely crazy. People need to be aware that while they work from home, they have a right to switch off. That is vitally important, and not all employers will recognise that right. Workers must stand up for themselves and ensure they avail of that right. Workers must ensure that when work is finished, it is finished. Employers cannot be abusing people in such a way.

People also have to be responsible. There might be a temptation to work late or take a few hours off in the middle of the day and work on but that could lead to more problems. We should be working to live, not living to work. That is vitally important and must be recognised by everybody, including the Government.

By allowing better access to employment for all, we would have a much better and more inclusive workforce, which is what we should aspire to. Remote working has allowed many of my constituents in Donegal to take up employment in companies that are based in Dublin or even further afield, which they previously would not have been able to do. It has also given many of my constituents the freedom to return to Donegal, to their families and friends and the place they call home. Remote working has been a relief to my constituency, and for many constituencies in the west, in which there has been a decline at an incredible rate over the last few decades of population, activity, services and businesses. Remote working has breathed life into our towns again. We all saw the proof of this during the pandemic. My town of Killybegs, which has for so long been a picture of dereliction and abandonment, has a new lease of life, with many new entrepreneurial ventures throughout the town. Businesses and companies had been doing well but the town itself had been declining. It just shows the great things people can do when given the opportunity and the flexibility to do it.

This is why it is so important to introduce flexible and remote working, to revitalise our rural areas and to give equal opportunity to all. There is no doubt that women mostly bear the brunt of having to balance work and family life, between pregnancy, maternity leave and childcare, as well as menopause and caring responsibilities. The 2016 census showed that women make up over six in ten carers. These are all women’s issues that should be looked into further and addressed. I welcome the announcement by the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth of the introduction of gender pay gap reporting this week. However, much more needs to be done to address the issues I have outlined today. A start to this would be the introduction of flexible and remote work. I again voice my support for this motion and thank the Labour Party for bringing this issue to the forefront on this very important week.

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