Emer Currie (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for taking on board the extensive feedback he has received. It is good to see included here that the direction of travel could specifically be about all employees. The Minister knows where I stand on this. We have had a trial of remote working and we have heaped too much pressure on it as an option for all employees, when it does not work for all roles. This was an opportunity to balance that out and begin the change that is required in the work culture.

As part of any review and future work in this area, there must be assistance for employers with how they make this transition. That will be important if one is looking at a review and the numbers are not what one is expecting. Part of this is about education. Even though we have been through a trial period of remote working, I do not think there is enough information about operating flexibility and remote working as a culture in a business. We could do more in that area. However, it is obviously not what I want in an ideal scenario, but I want to recognise that the Minister has put this in and reflected a possible future direction of travel. I hope I will be here in two years to make the same case.