Marie Sherlock (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his response and for taking back the representations. However, the people I referenced in the examples I gave, and the many others who are looking very keenly for this framework and code of practice, will not be reassured because no dates were given in his reply. I appreciate there has to be engagement with ICTU and IBEC but the pace of progress is far too slow.

The other key element is that other important parts of the Act, such as domestic violence leave, have not yet been commenced. There are questions the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy O'Gorman, has to answer in that regard. The key message from my contribution is that while meeting every two weeks is great, it is now three and a half years since hundreds of thousands of people were forced to work from home. The Government has dragged its heels. We had two Bills and we now have one Act. We have had a lot of discussion about this. It is not good enough that we are coming to the end of 2023 and there is still no framework for how we negotiate a right to request remote work in this country.