Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I accept it is not new that employees ask for facilitation around work-life balance, remote working and flexible working. Covid accelerated an awful lot of this but it was happening even before Covid to a certain extent. What is new is the provision in law for an employee to request remote working options and for an employer to have a legal obligation to respond seriously to this.

When you put something in legislation you want to make sure it works. Both contributors to this debate, ICTU and IBEC, if you want to refer to them as contributors, as well as others liked the idea of having clarity through a WRC recommended code of conduct or practice. We are moving in that direction. I accept we are now at the end of the process so people want to get on with it - so do I. I do not think we are going to have to wait much longer. Given that Christmas is on the way, we are talking about having this finalised in the next couple of months.

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