Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

If we required a lesson during Covid on that idea of work-life balance and how it can be facilitated, we saw a situation where, at times, with all the difficulties that there were, we were able to facilitate both employees and employers in regard to remote working. In regard to this specific legislation, a considerable amount of work needs to be done. If we are talking about dealing with the issue of domestic violence, we would prefer ten days rather than five. Sinn Féin had a previous Bill which contained the idea that people would not need to have proof of abuse, which can create significant difficulties. Within that Bill there was also protection for employers if the leave was not used for the intended purpose. I believe there is a piece of work that we have to do across the board.

I want to take this opportunity to deal with an issue that has come to my attention a number of times. I have had meetings with Revenue and with politicians, North and South, and I believe it needs a Government response. The issue is the difficulty of remote working for cross-Border workers. I will give the example of a woman who is resident in the North but working in the South, who is not able to avail of remote working and who has to be at work.

This is because there are, among other issues, tax and insurance implications for the company. We need to be able to facilitate people. I do not have to explain to anyone here how remote working facilitates people and is necessary, particularly at a time like this when there are added costs to commuting and we are in a cost-of-living crisis. This is an issue across Europe and attempts are being made to deal with it, but those could take a number of years. We know the difficulties we have had with our nearest neighbour in dealing with particular outworkings of Brexit, but we have heard that the mood music is better now, so we need to consider a bilateral arrangement that would facilitate cross-Border workers.

See this speech in context