Seanad debates

Thursday, 9 July 2020

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business

 

10:30 am

Photo of Mary Seery KearneyMary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The global pandemic has brought about changes in workplaces and how we envisage the workplace in ways that we thought would never change. In recent months the concept of working from home has brought about extraordinary and great benefits. However, there are other elements to the situation. I appreciate that today it was announced that there will be a remote working consultation.

We must have an opportunity to address and bring together two pressing issues. We know that the hospitality industry is under pressure due to a lack of tourism and all of the attendant issues, as colleagues in this Chamber have said. One of the elements of working from home has been the isolation of workers. In recent months, particularly in recent weeks as we have seen things open up, team-building exercises could have been introduced. I call for a debate on the possibility of a grant for employers to provide team building and a time for the coming together of employees in this unique moment as they work from home the rest of the time. Given that the hospitality industry tends to facilitate these events, and larger spaces and venues have the opportunity to facilitate social distancing, we could marry the need to be inclusive, accommodate social distancing and give an incentive to the hospitality industry.

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