Emer Currie (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate the Minister on yesterday's budget. The purpose of it was clear to me, namely, to save lives and livelihoods and I think it will be successful in that regard. I have a couple of specific points that were not the Minister's primary focus yesterday but I will take the opportunity to keep them on the agenda.

There is an issue affecting the north west and the Border area and people's ability to work remotely, which is obviously important and relevant at the moment. Residents in the Republic who work in the North are faced with double taxation liability by Revenue when they work at home or remotely south of the Border. If they want to log on to do any work, even just check their emails, they have to travel into the North to do so. This has a major effect on their work flexibility. This has been addressed for the pandemic because in both jurisdictions the advice is to work from home but for normal or new normal times, this should be addressed.

Some 86% of companies now say they are in favour of giving their employees flexibility like working from home. From a work-life balance perspective, I hope we see more long-term choice in how and where they work. It is important that the north west is not left behind and that the region offers the same opportunities as everywhere else for both employees who want a better work-life balance and employers who want to attract the best talent. We need to take account of the thankfully fluid nature of the Border and our commitment to an all-island economy under the Good Friday Agreement. Northern Ireland has a 60-day allowance for their workers who have jobs in the South but, hopefully, we can go further than this. Even better, could we agree a new reciprocal agreement of 180 days, perhaps through the work of the North-South Ministerial Council?

I noted yesterday the reference to the e-working tax relief and that the Minister did not want to pre-empt the work of the interdepartmental group looking at developing a remote work strategy. I thank the Minister for that update and for the inclusion of broadband. However, it would be a lost opportunity if I did not point out that I think the e-working tax relief should be fundamentally changed as part of that review. It is cumbersome, it does not offer enough value for money and it is only the bill payer who can avail of it. If one is renting a room in a house, for instance, one is not entitled to anything. In the UK, they have a flat rate tax relief of £4 during normal times and £6 during the pandemic but that is targeted at people who have no choice but to work from home, whereas we, hopefully, will embrace remote work as a lifestyle choice. Other countries offer a vouched approach based on the percentage of home-working space compared with the rest of their house. There are different examples to look at. We could offer an unvouched and a vouched option, particularly for people who invest in a home office. Trends are changing in that regard.

According to Dublin Bus and Irish Rail, employers can achieve PRSI savings of up to 10.75% and employees can save between 31% and 52% of travel costs as a result of tax, PRSI and USC savings by participating in tax saver commuter schemes. In 2019, the tax saver tickets were worth €88.6 million gross and they were issued on Leap cards. Can we offer reciprocal tax benefits to remote workers? Grow Remote, based on its own experience, tells us that work preferences level out to a third, a third and a third.A third of people have absolutely no interest in working remotely. They want to work in the office and they want to commute to work. Another third want to work from home or remotely and the final third want a mix of both. We are seeing in the media at the moment how different people react to different circumstances. It is a fantastic opportunity for us in terms of work-life balance, regional balance, environmental benefits and to breathe new life into local communities, which are not as active economically as our European counterparts and where we also have a higher level of vacant properties. The opportunity was recognised yesterday with €5 million being provided by the Department of Rural and Community Development to develop digital hubs for employment opportunities, €3 million for the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation and €30 million ring-fenced for regional enterprise centres to call for initiatives to create jobs in every region of the country. This is brilliant news, and it follows on from the programme for Government and the consultation on remote work, but what we need now is a joined-up strategy from company to community if we really want transformative change.

I recognise the supports for businesses affected by Covid and Brexit. In the limited time since yesterday I have had very positive feedback from the businesses in Dublin West on the Covid restrictions support scheme, the decrease in VAT, the extension of the commercial rates waiver and €100 million to help businesses adapt to Brexit and, very importantly, the €500 million for the shared island unit and cross-Border opportunities. In addition, there was a commitment by the Department of Finance to change how we measure success, not just by economic measures but by well-being measures. That is really important to recognise. It was a good budget for challenging times, one that I hope we can all get behind.