Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I pay tribute and join my colleagues in lamenting the loss of Paddy Maloney. He was an extraordinarily talented person and musician who brought music to a new level. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis. I join my colleague, Senator Conway, in his remarks on the budgetary process. Budget day is now redundant. In this House, we created a budgetary oversight committee for the oversight of the budget, from a fiscal and macro point of view. We should, as an Oireachtas and a Government, whoever is in power, look at budget day in the future. Senator Conway is right. One could pick up any newspaper or listen to any radio programme yesterday morning and in the weeks before it and we had the budget before it was published yesterday afternoon. I ask for a debate on that in the coming weeks.

I ask the Leader for a debate on the future of work. Senator Sherlock made reference to work and I commend some of what she spoke about. Our workplace is no longer just a physical office; it has transformed into myriad things and places. The world of work has changed. We need a debate on the world of work, in the context of the Low Pay Commission and the living wage, but also remote working and the hybrid office and work we will have in the future. It is incumbent upon us, as the Oireachtas, to lead in that debate on the future of work. If one were to listen to Paul Hackett of clickandgo.com and the president of the Irish Travel Agents Association on "Morning Ireland", one would be struck by his remarks about recruitment, work shortage, employment, staffing issues and the huge challenges they and the world of work have in retention and attracting people to stay and remain in work, be it non-nationals or ourselves.

We have to have a debate about the world and future of work, as a society, economy and people and about how we have work and those who work. I am a proud member of a trade union and I was a shop steward in my time in school. It is important we have a debate on the future of work and the value we place on work. That debate needs to happen, because, the world of work has changed. We saw in the budget, and rightly so, a nod to the way in which remote working has changed. It is hoped people will be working more in a hybrid model. The Oireachtas should have that debate sooner, rather than later.