Marie Sherlock (Labour)
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I thank the Minister of State for coming to the Chamber to take this. My question today relates to the Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2023. Why, more than six months after the President signed this Act into law, are parts of this legislation not operational? As of October 2023, we still do not have a statutory right in force for domestic violence leave, a right to request remote work, a right to request flexible work, powers granted to Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, officers in the case of disputes on remote working arrangements or protections for workers when employers are refusing or distorting the processes. I am conscious that these things take time but this is beyond taking due time.

The WRC was tasked with putting in place a code of practice. The closing date for consultations was 9 June. That is almost 18 weeks ago. On 3 July, the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, commenced sections of the Act relating to carer's leave and breastfeeding leave, yet some of the most important and crucial parts of the Act remain uncommenced. I feel very strongly about the right to flexible work for all workers in workplaces where it is possible, because of the chances it offers to so many people who want to work and cannot, or those who want to work full-time but cannot because of commuting, the lack of childcare available or circumstances in their lives. In particular, this includes working parents, lone parents, those with a disability and those who had to relocate out of Dublin, Cork and the other major urban areas because they are priced out of them by house prices and rents. Almost one in three women at work in Ireland today work part-time. Not all work part-time because they want to. They do so because of the lack of childcare and the lack of flexible work arrangements on offer in their workplaces.

I think any Government that is serious about reducing the gender pay gap and improving the share of women in full-time employment has to realise that flexible work arrangements are really vital. Members of the Minister of State's party made those arguments passionately when we were debating this Bill. The Government obviously decided to introduce a much narrower and more restrictive version of a right to flexible work in the Bill, confining it to only certain categories of workers, which I believe is a mistake. Nonetheless, we now have an Act on the Statute Book with large parts of it uncommenced.

The key thing that I want to say to the Minister of State is that the delays are having a real impact. A lone parent contacted me a number of times during the summer and as recently as two weeks ago, to say she is trying to do her best for her family and cannot access after-school care for her child because of the black spot with regard to childcare and after-school care in our area.She wants to finish at 3.30 p.m. every day in order to collect her child but her employer is making her work until 4.30 p.m. She has nobody and no family around to collect that child. There is no framework for her to try to assert her right. Indeed, there is no framework or guidance for the employer as to how it should act in that regard. I am thinking of a family with two children who had to move two and a half hours up the road from here because they simply could not afford to continue renting in Dublin. They are now being forced back into the workplace, which is a Government Department, and there is no framework for negotiation on a right to request remote work.

I want to hear from the Minister of State that there will be a speedy commencement of these sections of the Act and that he accounts for why the WRC has not produced that code of practice to date.

Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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I will outline my absolute support for the Act. I am not just saying that as a politician. In my daily life, we talk a lot about being at effective full employment. It is a nice thing to say and it shows the power of the economy but for employers that means a very tight labour market. One thing I was boosted by in the first half of this year was that when the unemployment figures again went down, we saw that 75% of those who returned to work were women. We do not need to go into the details but women still remain the primary caregivers at home, be that for children, elderly parents or relatives. Women were able to return to work because of that increased level of flexibility and the right to disconnect, which will allow them to return to the workplace in a manner that is realistic and accepts the genuine needs outside the workplace.

I fundamentally agree that this requires legislative underpinning. In many cases, the change is moving voluntarily but that is not enough. It needs strong legislation and a strong code of practice, which will be achieved through the Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Act enacted on 4 April 2023. As the Senator highlighted, however, the code of practice is crucial to making sure the Act is implemented. That code is currently being prepared by the WRC. This work is ongoing. The code will have practical guidelines for workers and employers on how to treat applications for remote working. This is something that must be done correctly. As we know, it will be of great importance to so many workers and employees.

The WRC held a public consultation, which received submissions up until 9 June. In total, 51 submissions were received. The WRC then reviewed the submissions that were received as part of the consultation process, as well as reviewing other relevant policy documents, research and best practice in other jurisdictions, as part of finalising a working draft code. A working group has been established, which is working towards agreeing the contents of this draft code. The group includes representatives of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, ICTU, and IBEC to ensure it can represent employees and employers alike. This group met again just last week on Thursday, 5 October. We expect the group to meet every two weeks to complete this code as soon as possible. With this in mind, the code will be published as soon as is practicable following the conclusion of the work.

I will give the Senator an undertaking. It is a fair request that this work should be done speedily and brought about as quickly as possible. I 100% agree with her; she has no disagreement. We have tasked the WRC and its working group with a very important piece of work. We know it has to be got right to make sure it underpins the Act but it has to be done in an expedited manner. I will once again take the Senator's representations back to that discussion. I underline that I will press this, as the Minister of State responsible as much as anything else.

Marie Sherlock (Labour)
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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.

Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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I take an element of the Senator's criticism as fair but I have to reject some of it because this has to be got right. We have tasked the relevant people in the WRC, and people who are trusted both within the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and IBEC and who have experience to make sure that code of conduct is done correctly. I am not just going to put a set date on it because if we set a deadline, we are just setting a target to be missed. I want this to be got right. We all agree about what the end destination needs to be but it has to be underpinned by legislation and a code of conduct that can stand the test of time and meet any sorts of challenges. Absolutely, yes, I will be pushing for this to be done as quickly as possible but I want to make sure it is done right.

As I said, I will take the Senator's very well articulated and fair concerns on board and bring them back. When I next meet with the WRC, however, I will of course be asking how the last two weeks went and how many more weeks we have got in the future and we will make sure we get this delivered as quickly as possible.

Martin Conway (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State very much for his time on what is a very busy day for him and his staff.