Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

As Senator Seery Kearney has stated, any employer is entitled to provide flexible arrangements in contracts now, and many do. The Senator has already spoken about how many employers get really good employees by making work as attractive as possible. What we are working to put in place here is a statutory system that, as Senator Seery Kearney has said, employers will not be able to contract out of and through which they will be bound to offer the right to request these arrangements to all employees, including even employees working in firms that do not see the benefit or understand the attractiveness of the offer of flexible work to employees. We are providing this as a basic level of entitlement. It is a very significant step forward with regard to that right to request but it does not take away an employer's right to offer flexible work arrangements from day one, as some already do.